Global association for the exhibition industry, UFI has announced the cancellation of its 2020 European Conference. The event had been scheduled to take place in Gothenburg, 3-5 June.
The next UFI European Conference will take place 5-7 May 2021 in Poznan, Poland.
The June conference, which was to have been hosted at the Swedish Exhibition & Congress Centre in Gothenburg, could not go ahead as planned due to the coronavirus outbreak, the association said.
The co-located Forum on HR which was due to take place from 2-3 June at the same venue has also been cancelled.
“The ongoing pandemic has left us with no other choice. We wanted to run the events as soon as possible, however we could not find suitable dates later this year, when our hosts and the wider industry will undoubtedly have very busy calendars. We thank our hosts at the Swedish Exhibition & Congress Centre for being so accommodating, and we look forward to bringing the event to Gothenburg at some time in the future,” said Nick Dugdale-Moore, UFI Regional Manager Europe.
Registration fees for industry professionals who have already registered for both events will be reimbursed.
“We are of course sad not to be able to welcome UFI and our European exhibition industry colleagues to Gothenburg this June,” said Carin Kindbom, CEO & President of the Swedish Exhibition & Congress Centre, “however we will be delighted to and look forward to welcoming everyone back when the time is right.”
The 2021 conference in Poznan will be hosted by Grupa MTP in their centenary year.
“We are sorry not to be joining our colleagues in Gothenburg in June, however we are happy nonetheless to be confirmed as the hosts of next year’s UFI European Conference. Founded in 1921, next year marks 100 years of organising tradefairs, a very important milestone for our company and the Polish exhibition industry. Please join us in Poznan to celebrate together in style,” said Tomasz Kobierski, Chairman of the Board of Grupa MTP.
Although the European Conference will not take place this year, UFI will endeavour to facilitate meetings between members at various smaller events across Europe, once restrictions on travel and meetings have been lifted. Information and details of these meetings will be published in due course.
The UFI HR Management Working Group is now also looking at ways to bring the material from the forum to the UFI membership and promises more details to follow.
“Once we get through this crisis and shows can open their doors again, all of us at UFI look forward to visiting as many tradefairs and venues of our members across Europe as possible. We will organise smaller meetings where members and others can network and share ideas, both formal and informal. Exhibitions and tradefairs in the post-Covid-19 era will play a crucial role in the economic recovery at a local and regional level and we will need to work together to support each other, as our industry always does.” said Nick Dugdale-Moore.
In the meantime, UFI is supporting our global community and the industry at large in many ways. A list of resources is available at www.ufi.org/coronavirus - including an overview of government support programmes in around 60 countries around the world.
UFI has also launched ‘UFI Connects, a designated online programme of educational talks, panels, and sessions to provide content and dialogue while our regular events and educational programmes cannot take place as usual.
See upcoming as well as previous sessions here
