In focus, with the Digital Innovation Award finalists
This year’s UFI Digital Innovation Award put a spotlight on technological advances by innovators who push the boundaries of our industry.
This year’s UFI Digital Innovation Award put a spotlight on technological advances by innovators who push the boundaries of our industry.
My last two columns here carried big UFI staff news, respectively: Chris Skeith will take over as UFI’s CEO on January 1, 2025, and Kai Hattendorf will leave UFI after a decade in the CEO’s chair (or, for a fair share of that, an airplane seat).
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.
UFI’s previous logo and brand identity were introduced early into this century when UFI underwent a major repositioning. Back then, the brand’s redesign was all about supporting UFI’s growing global reach and role.
The launch of UFI’s new “Exhibition Essentials” education programme in Riyadh, Saudi-Arabia. Our first ever UFI Americas Conference in Monterrey, Mexico. The 3rd Asia CEO Summit in Singapore. The Sustainable Events Summit in New York City that UFI supports – I have to admit that, even as the UFI President, I have struggled on occasion to keep up with the stream of news and updates that the team has shared with me in the past weeks.
In my decade at UFI, I struggle to remember another month that has been as packed with UFI activities around the world as this past September. Within a few weeks, we had the regular late summer leadership meeting in Paris. We ran a successful pilot for a new education programme for colleagues who are new in our industry, the “UFI Exhibition Essentials”, in Riyadh, working with Tahaluf.
Here we are – our next peak exhibition season is underway. I don’t know about you, but September looks more than just packed in my diary – including a trip to Paris this week for our regular September UFI Executive Committee meeting.
August saw two special delegation activities for UFI members: We had the opportunity to take a group behind the scenes at the “Deutsches Haus” at the Paris Olympics, thanks to our colleagues from Messe Düsseldorf. The Games really managed to transform Paris into an even more special place, and quite a few UFI members were involved in that – Viparis, GL Events and others.
What a week we had in Zurich in June – welcoming 300 members and colleagues from more than 40 countries and regions for the many kinds of meetings, including the European Conference. It was surely memorable for all of us who were there (thanks in large part to our hosts, Messe Zürich) – and as the data from our social media analytics show, the events generated an extremely good number of posts and pictures shared online.
With June wrapping up, the first half of 2024 already lies behind us. On my way back from the European Conference a few days back, I scribbled down some notes, remembering some of the things I have experienced as your UFI President. The list got surprisingly long very fast – a testament to our association's intense work, always encouraging us to be a part of it.