The MCH Group and its companies are celebrating 100 years of business.
The 100 Years Ahead celebrations not only celebrating the 100th Muba but, at the same time, the 100th anniversary of the company group and the founding of the modern trade-fair industry in Switzerland.
The MCH Group was founded as the Swiss Sample Fair on 15 July 1916, when the government of the canton of Basel-Stadt gave its consent for a Swiss Sample Fair to be staged in 1917.
While the main focus is on its employees, the MCH Group is including its partners and clients, exhibitors and visitors, and also the public at large, in its 100th year celebrations.
Throughout the year, current information, milestones in the company's history and personal stories are being posted on the new anniversary website www.100jahrezukunft.ch.
The highlights of the festivities include the publication of the anniversary book "In step with the times – from the Swiss Sample Fair to the MCH Group" and the opening of the poster exhibition "100 Years Muba: an eye-catching journey through time" at the start of March 2016.
The 350-page book, compiled under the leadership of Patrick Kury and Esther Baur in cooperation with Christoph Merian Publishers (Basel) is being presented at a reception in Basel City Hall on 2 March 2016.
In this illustrated book, 13 authors – well-known historians and journalists – report among other things on the courage of the founding fathers, the rise of the Swiss Sample Fair as a national institution and the success of the current MCH Group in the international exhibition business.
In doing so, they set out the history of the architecture and the company, present individual exhibitions and take a look behind the scenes during both past and present eras at the Swiss Sample Fair and the MCH Group.
The 100th Muba (from 15-24 April 2016) is being launched with a special anniversary opening event in the presence of Federal Councillor Alain Berset and numerous representatives from politics, business and society. A large number of anniversary activities and events are in store for visitors throughout the ten days of the fair.
In June 2016, some 200 marketing experts from the UFI, the association of the world's biggest organisers of exhibitions and proprietors of exhibition grounds, will be guests at the Congress Center Basel and will be celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the MCH Group at a networking dinner together with further guests from Switzerland's world of business and politics.
An employee party is being staged at the start of September 2016 for the 800 employees of the MCH Group, as a highlight of the anniversary year and also to mark its conclusion.
