Dear colleagues, dear friends, When you read these lines, we will be four short weeks away from our Global Congress in Las Vegas. I am sure that this will become a most memorable event for each and everyone participating, and for many different reasons. For me personally, it will mark the end of my year in office as your President.

Dear members, dear colleagues, Ahead of our Global Congress in Las Vegas, I have had the opportunity to connect with our members and community in Asia, Europe, and North America in recent weeks – having been in Bangkok, Düsseldorf, New York. And when you read this, we will be in Singapore with a team, jointly producing the Asia CEO Summit, a collaboration between AEO, SACEOS, SISO, and UFI.

I hope many of you had the opportunity to enjoy a little break between the busy seasons our industry is going through again this year. I for my part have returned energised and excited about where we are as an industry right now. Looking at our most recent UFI Global Barometer, it is nothing but astonishing that – give or take a few percentage points – globally and on average we have grown back this quickly to the size we had in 2019 when we look at the industry revenues.

In an era marked by digital transformation and rapid technological advancements, the exhibition industry is set for a data-driven future. As we venture further into 2023, the significance of data remains steadfast, with professional exhibition organizers in Thailand and beyond eagerly embracing the transformative potential to amplify innovation and deliver new business outcome to its organizations and stakeholders.

The whole Paris team is back in the office after having used the past two months to take some time off respectively. Recharged and energised, we are working now to prepare our Global Congress in Las Vegas. We will have a unique event for all of you, and with colleagues from more than 50 countries around the world signed up already, we may see our most international event ever this November. Check out this UFI Info for more updates, and don’t forget to register.