Dear colleagues, dear members, 

Brands trigger emotions. We are used to the way something looks, and we value familiarity. At the same time, the world continues to change, and brands need to change with them. It is a case of “running to stand still” if you don’t want to be left behind.

This UFI Info looks a little bit different. It does so because we have updated and refreshed UFI’s logo and appearance. On the eve of our association’s centennial, this visual update will carry UFI through the next decade(s). It reaffirms our global identity, and it updates our look and feel for a mostly digital age of communications combined with in-person events, meetings, and experiences.

Actually, UFI didn’t use a logo for a long time. The first one was introduced in 1947. It showed a portrait of Hermes, the Greek God of Trade, wearing his trademark winged helmet. Around that image, the text said, “UFI—Union of International Fairs.” If you look through the history books, you see this logo making appearances through the decades.

In 2003, UFI reinvented itself into “UFI, The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry”, and the logo was changed into what we have been using until now. This look & feel and its corresponding guidelines have stood the test of time well, against all the waves of challenges posed by ever more complex digital applications. One example: While it guides us on how a glass paperweight looks, it offers no solution for dynamic digital screen size applications. It simply can’t, as these didn’t exist in 2003. It is – it was – time to go back to the drawing board.

We actually had the first internal discussions around the growing need to revisit and update UFI’s brand internally before the pandemic. We picked these up again as we built and expanded our current MarComs team – all three of them united by a passion for our industry and in-person meetings and exchanges, and all of them “digital natives”. And we wanted to time the new look with UFI’s centennial.

To build for the future, you need both – legacy and experience as well as an understanding of what is coming. We all challenged each other – within the team and with the UFI leadership – to find out what change exactly will help UFI going forward and allow us to continue to do the best job possible to serve and represent our industry.

The “new” UFI look and feel is part of that journey. See it as a new outfit, upgrading our appearance as we become more visible to policymakers and more active in advocacy and outreach.

As every change, this new look and feel will trigger emotions. That is a testament to the passion we all have – for the work we do every day, for our industry, and for UFI as our global association.

Yours,

Kai Hattendorf, UFI CEO