|
Ten Years of the Central European Fair Alliance
The organization of seminars to improve the knowledge about fair business, to build a network between the members, the representation of interests in the EU and the problems of the single members with the local authorities were the main topics of the CEFA annual meeting that took place on June 17 in the gardens of Trauttmansdorff Castle near Merano. With a brilliant display of summer flowers as the backdrop, the ten year jubilee of the Central European Fair Alliance was celebrated in Bolzano. “We are convinced to do the right thing, operating on concrete project, step by step”, said Manfred Wutzelhofer, representative of Munich International Trade Fairs and CEFA-Chairman.
This interest group was brought to life in January 1995 by the exhibition center organizations of Bratislava, Brno, Budapest, Graz, Klagenfurt, Ljubljana, Munich, Prague, Vienna, and Zagreb with a view toward a pan-European integration process. In 1999, it took on the name CEFA – Central European Fair Alliance, and at the same time, a website was set up with the address www.cefa.biz . Interest in the activities of tradeshow cooperation grew, so much so that between 2000 and 2004, the exhibition center organizations of Sarajevo, Novisad, Belgrade, Bolzano, Skopje, Bucharest and Plovdiv joined the alliance, as did the GHM – the Gesellschaft für Handwerksmessen München (the Munich Society for Handicraft Tradeshows). However, since the Brno Exhibition Center left this initiative in 1999 and the Ljubljana Exhibition Center has been inactive since 2004, CEFA currently encompasses sixteen exhibition center organizations.
From the very beginning, the cooperation goals of CEFA were the exchange of information, the implementation or support of marketing and PR activities, cooperation in the individual professional areas, continuing education, and the exchange of employees. In this way, efficient access to the international market and an ease of also tapping into regional markets was to be achieved for the clients, and broad-reaching information has been made available to the cooperating exhibition centers. At the EU level, CEFA has endeavored to build up a network for its members with the institutions of the European Union. In order to consolidate cooperation with organizations in the tradeshow industry in Central and Eastern Europe, an agreement was signed in 2004 between CEFA and CENTREX, the International Exhibition Statistics Union. Since 1999, marketing stands have regularly been set up by CEFA members at events at the Munich Exhibition Center. Beginning in 2004, CEFA members have also had the possibility of presenting themselves at the “Gateway to New Europe” stand which the Munich Exhibition Center sets up at various events. The alliance organizes seminars for “Young Professionals” at which colleagues who deal with the same event topics meet and can then establish contacts at an early stage in their careers. The next seminar will take place in Munich from July 10 to 13, 2005.
The central tasks of the organization are the consolidation and further development of CEFA as an organization as well as the alignment of the cooperation goals and tasks of CEFA to the current demands, which was also accentuated this year at the CEFA annual meeting in Bolzano. Next year Padova Expositions will probably become member of CEFA. At the annual meeting, Padova’s request has been stated by Bolzano Expositions. The common objective of accompanying in a sustained manner the integration process in the enlarged EU with the medium of the exhibition center as a nerve center for a transfer of know-how and new business relationships is another primary goal. “Think globally and act regionally” said George Cojacaru of Romexpo at Bukarest describing briefly the CEFA’s activities. He will become President of CEFA at the beginning of 2006.
Bolzano, June 17, 2005
|
