Fira de Barcelona has reported a record-breaking year in terms of its foreign activities, with more shows and new products than ever before. During 2024, the Spanish organiser and venue will stage 14 events, eight of which are new, in countries such as the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Chile, China and Saudi Arabia. It is also stepping up activity at the two venues it operates in China through a joint venture.
One key event in the Fira’s drive to expand its activity on international markets are its Smart City Expo World Congress. While trade fairs organised in Barcelona, such as Alimentaria, Tomorrow.Mobility and IOT Solutions World Congress, also stand out as models for exporting to other countries.
In this first half of this year, the Fira has already held six events. Among the novelties, the first editions of Smart City Expo in New York City (United States) and Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) stand out. The smart cities show has also been organised for the fifth time in Curitiba (Brazil), the largest so far, with the participation of more than 450 mayors, 50 countries and 16,800 visitors, and will travel soon for the fifth time to Argentina, to the city of Santiago del Estero, which will be hosting its third edition.
The second half of the year will begin with the Smart City Expo Latam Congress where over 300 municipalities, 100 mayors and a hundred institutions and companies will take part in the event, held for the ninth time in Mexico in the city of Mérida. The first edition of Tomorrow.Mobility, the exhibition on new sustainable urban mobility systems, will be held in parallel to the event. Smart City Expo will also be organised again in Bogotá and Doha and will be held for the first time in Santiago de Chile and in the Chinese city of Hangzhou.
It is in China, in the city of Chengdu, that the first edition of Alimentaria will be held for the first time in this country next September. And in Brazil, Fira is launching two new events, Tomorrow.Blue Economy, in December in the city of Niteroi, and IOT Solutions Congress, which took place in the first week of June in Sao Paulo.
In addition, Fira continues to co-organise events annually in Cuba and this year held the fourth edition of Alimentos Cuba.
The director of Fira de Barcelona, Constantí Serrallonga, says the intense activity abroad this year reinforces the company’s strategy. “Over ten years we have consolidated our international positioning with the aim of being useful to companies and helping to open up new markets and build bridges with countries with great dynamism and opportunities,” he notes.
Management of international exhibition centres is on the rise, with Fira de Barcelona to operate two in China from 2021. The Chinese venues in question are the Xuzhou Greenland Huaihai International Expo Center and the Nanchang Greenland International Expo Center, two venues which together have a total exhibition area of 240,000sqm, and which this year are scheduled to host 66 events in total, including the 21st edition of the China Livestock Exhibition, which occupies 190,000sqm of exhibition space at the Nanchang site, and the fourth International Intelligent Automobile and New Energy Exhibition at the Xuzhou facilities.
