What novelties have you prepared for this 2019 edition?
One of the novelties of recent editions are the geography focuses. This year, there will be a major focus on the United States and the Americas through several agreements with important American trade associations. Another important focus is Europe, again thanks to partnerships with the most authoritative Italian and international trade associations. Events too will present several new features. Along with the renewed SMART Label - Host Innovation award, we will introduce a new event with a very innovative concept: the "Luxury Pastry Chef" host by Italian pastry maestro Iginio Massari. Besides delivering several show-cooking moments and talks himself, the Maestro will also pick and supervise the other pastry chefs who will perform at the event. New, specifically designed events and training opportunities will also be offered in the coffee sector thanks to partnerships.
The event presents a multifaceted program with workshops at Host and special events. Which of the activities do you think are a must for the visitor or which of them do you highlight?
Hostmilano will offer a menu of more than 500 events across all sectors. In fact, edition after edition, Hostmilano anticipates the trends set to mold the Third Millennium hospitality culture. Besides Massari’s event I mentioned before, I’d like to delve a bit more into the concept of SMART Label - Host Innovation award, the contest held by Fiera Milano and HostMilano, in partnership with POLI. Design, Consorzio del Politecnico di Milano with the patronage of ADI - Associazione Italiana per il Disegno Industriale dedicated to groundbreaking innovations in hospitality.
As in past editions, the level of innovation and the “smartest solutions” will be assessed by an international jury composed of five members, including university professors, professionals, and experts with extensive experience in design, hospitality and energy saving. They will choose candidate products, services, and projects based on the criteria ranging from efficient functions to usability and sustainability. Moreover, the ‘Design Talks’ will feature seven seminars providing updates for architects, experts, and operators with a user-centric approach and a focus on digital transformation.
What are the advantages of exhibiting at Host?
The reason is simple. Not only is Hostmilano a unique business opportunity to showcase innovative equipment and solutions. It is also an opportunity to offer visitors a real multi-sensory experience, from company presentations to show-cooking with award-winning chefs. Exhibitors will be part of a real global “kitchen”, where a rich menu of exhibitions and show-cooking, samples and tasting pathways, round tables, and cook-offs between bakery maestros, award-winning chefs, baristas and designers will enrich what is the sector’s largest observatory in terms of trends and innovations, investigated in their every glamorous detail. All this will help exhibitors to present their products in context, thus improving the chances of transmitting their value proposition through to visitors.
Can you give some tips for those exhibiting for the first time in Milan and specifically at Host? (venue rules, customs, business etiquette...)
Applying is very simple and I’d say there is only one basic rule: being part of the worldwide hospitality community. Our website presents all the relevant information and our contact center is available for further support. In the case of non-EU visitors or exhibitors, I strongly suggest they check in advance the visa and customs rules that apply to their country of origin. My personal advice to those coming for the first time is to plan some extra time on their trip to visit the city –not simply for tourism, but because Milan has become one of the world’s recognized capitals of the out of home offer and they will be able to discover many interesting new formats, layouts, and innovations in products and services.
Can anybody attend Host? How to register?
Hostmilano is a business-to-business event and attendance is reserved to hospitality and away-from-home professionals. However, applications are easy through our website and further information can be obtained from our support team.
What is the exhibitor profile?
Hostmilano presents the best Italian and international suppliers of machines, equipment, furnishings, contract, complements, semi-finished products and technologies that share a common orientation toward product and business innovation. An unparalleled opportunity to explore sustainable, experiential, and customized proposals, but also smart and hyper-technological. The next-generation away-from-home and hospitality structures, the ultimate symbols of new lifestyles around the world. From 4.0 technology such as automation or artificial intelligence to changes in tastes.
What is the visitor profile?
One of the most relevant categories of visitors is composed of distributors, resellers, exporters, and importers. We also noticed an increasing presence in recent years of representatives from away-from-home businesses such as restaurants, fast food and street food, self-service restaurants and company canteens. Coffee bars, pastry-makers, and gelaterias are a staple feature in our attendance and they are more and more complemented by large-scale retail and shopping centers. Last but not least, we shouldn’t forget professionals such as Architects, designers, and contractors, consulting firms and services that are a very important component attracted by the new trends presented. And, of course, chefs, baristas and pastry and gelato maestros, that are the absolute protagonists in many of our events. The international outlook of the Fiera Milano show is further highlighted by the significant number of hosted buyers that will attend. Thanks also to the collaboration with ICE Agenzia, there will be more than 1,500 operators from 80 countries, with 80% turnover, coming mainly from the USA, Canada, the Middle East, UAE, China, and Russia.
Which are the more relevant tradeshows in the sector?
The sector is very diverse and numerous events are held in different countries. Hostmilano is one of the oldest and has earned over the decades a role as a worldwide reference, and for this reason, we created a special format called Food & Hospitality that brings the Italian hospitality style to India and China. We also present our expertise in many events around the world and, among the most recent ones, I’d like to mention World of Coffee in Berlin and Amsterdam for Europe, The Hotel Show, Dubai in the Middle East and the International Restaurant & Foodservice Show of New York in the USA. We were also present at events in important emerging markets, like Abastur in Mexico City.
Can you give us some participation results from the last edition? How many visitors attend? and, from how many different nationalities they are?
The results of the 40th edition are best shown by numbers: professional visitors totaled 187,602 (+24.3% compared to 2015), of which 38.8% were international guests from 177 countries (72,699, +20.4% compared to 2015). Double-digit increases from non-European countries: the area generating the highest visitor increase in Oceania with +52,8%, followed by Latin America, +31%; the Middle East +25,8% and Africa, +11%. As regards the single countries we must mention the Asia Pacific area with +66% from Australia, followed by Japan, +41% and New Zealand, +19%. From the Middle East worth mentioning Israel, +38%, and from Latin America Brazil, +6%. Great success also from the focus countries of this edition: +38,5% from Canada, +6,8% from the EUA, and +32% from the USA.
As well as the European countries, China, the USA, the Russian region and the Middle East ranked among those generating the highest visitor flows. Not to mention substantial numbers from particularly distant or unusual countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Cambodia, Polynesia and several African countries like Botswana, Burundi, Eritrea.
More than 20 the new countries present at the show for the first time, such as Christmas Island, Mariana Islands, Samoa; from the Indian Ocean, visitors from Seychelles, and from the Himalayan slopes visitors from Nepal, from Sub Saharan Africa visitors from Rwanda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The exhibition floor was mostly made up of purchasing managers and company decision-makers, also from far-away markets, notably including over 1,500 hosted buyers with specifically chosen profiles from all over the world, some of whom had been identified also thanks to close collaboration with the ITA-ICE Agenzia.
