- At the end of its first decade in São Paulo, NürnbergMesse Brasil has a broad portfolio of 14 events and is on track for further growth
- Precisely tailored exhibition concepts, a high level of service and innovative new events are the company’s DNA of success
- João Picolo: successful exhibition manager and trend scout for NürnbergMesse Brasil
The exhibition market in Brazil is the largest in Latin America. At the press conference in São Paulo held on its 10th birthday today, NürnbergMesse Brasil can confirm that it is meanwhile one of the leading exhibition companies in the country. For Dr Roland Fleck, CEO of the NürnbergMesse Group, this is a truly remarkable fact: “The development of our Brazilian fairs and congresses is all the more impressive because the macroeconomic conditions in Brazil have been anything but good in recent years. However today, thanks to the outstanding achievements of João Picolo and his team, we are in a stronger position than a decade ago.” Fleck’s fellow CEO Peter Ottmann highlights another factor in the company’s success: “Alongside the fantastic work done by our colleagues in Brazil, it is also the tailor-made exhibition concepts in particular that set NürnbergMesse Brasil apart from its rivals. We are providing the key marketing platforms for Brazil’s important growth markets. The market is rewarding our efforts and so the best is also still ahead of us!”
There are around 1,600 German companies operating in Brazil and São Paulo is actually one of the largest German industrial locations worldwide outside of Germany. As the ninth largest economy in the world with a population of just under 210 million, Brazil is considered to be a consumption-driven nation that is receptive to trade fairs. According to the national exhibition association UBRAFE, 14 new trade fairs are being launched this year alone. One of them is Pet Experience (pet supplies, 30 August to 1 September 2019), a new event format for consumers that NürnbergMesse Brasil is now also offering alongside the PET South America exhibition in what is the world’s third-largest pet market. In addition, NürnbergMesse Brasil is also making a name for itself as a much sought-after organiser of leading fairs on behalf of associations or media partners. These events include EXPO REVESTIR (interior finishing and sanitary ware, March 12- 15, 2019), LATAM RETAIL SHOW (retail, franchising, e-commerce, August 27 - 29, 2019) and ABRAFATI (paint and coatings, October 01 - 03, 2019). For ABRAFATI, South America’s most important trade fair for paint and coatings, NürnbergMesse Brasil was in charge of the technical execution for the first time this year. From 2021, ABRAFATI will be organised completely by NürnbergMesse Brasil in collaboration with the Brazilian Association of Paint Manufacturers (ASSOCIAÇÃO BRASILEIRA DOS FABRICANTES DE TINTAS) and Vincentz Network. Strategically, ABRAFATI is consistent with the international NürnbergMesse product family of “Leading Coatings Shows”, including the European Coatings Show in Nuremberg and PAINTINDIA in India, and Brazilian exhibitors and visitors are set to benefit from this in future as well. In turn, the organisers of ABRAFATI expect to see an increase in international participation in Brazil. Overall this shows that João Picolo and his 45-strong team are on the right track: “We are operating in markets that are constantly growing and that we can expand,” says the Managing Director of NürnbergMesse Brasil, who has been at the helm of the successful exhibition organisation firm since 2016.
There is huge momentum in the exhibition market in Brazil: NürnbergMesse Brasil closed fiscal 2018 with growth up 40 percent on the previous year, a fact that certainly grabs the attention. For João Picolo there are two key aspects that are important in this context: “In Brazil, trade fairs have always been an accepted marketing tool. But your success is determined by the industries for which you design the events. And in this situation our advantage is that all of our 14 events cover the relevant growth sectors in Brazil, i.e.: pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and laboratory technology, analysis, biotechnology and quality control, pet and veterinary needs, sustainability and mobility.” Picolo’s optimism is also sustained at present by the country’s economic climate. For example, the around 1,400 companies in Brazil recently polled by the German Brazil Chamber of Commerce and Industry believe that the economic trough is over and that the Brazilian economy is picking up again. According to the companies surveyed, the free trade agreement between the EU and the four MERCOSUR states Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay will be helpful in this conjunction: 88 percent of respondents expect the agreement to impact positively on the MERCOSUR market, which comprises 780 million people and will in future no longer have to pay customs duties to the tune of around 4 billion euros a year.
However, for João Picolo, the traditional trade fair business is not a place to just sit back and relax; there’s a need to constantly evolve: “We are constantly looking for new trends, because organising a trade fair involves far more than just making space available for exhibitors. We put together a package of solutions for our customers precisely tailored to their needs.” And the contents of these packages range from modern business matching methods to offering corresponding congresses and developing innovative new events. Two specific examples are the “Festival Bike Brasil”(August 22 - 24, 2019) and the “Veículo Elétrico Latino-Americano” (October 01 - 03, 2019), the latter the largest electric mobility fair in Latin America, organised by NürnbergMesse Brasil for the first time in 2018. In this anniversary year for NürnbergMesse Brasil, Dr Roland Fleck, NürnbergMesse CEO, is especially pleased about these two events, because they address mobility, one of the key issues of importance for the future in South America as well. All of these factors explain why João Picolo has chosen the 10th anniversary of NürnbergMesse Brasil to reiterate: “The positive signals from our partners and the market have convinced us that we can continue to press ahead on our successful path with NürnbergMesse Brasil.”