What makes Export Home unique?
António Proença: It is the only professional furniture exhibition in Portugal where the largest and best manufacturers are present. The best furniture in the world is on show at Export Home.
What improvements in relation to the 2007 edition will we be able to find?
The inclusion of the new Contract sector will attract more qualified visitors, thus constituting a new business opportunity for the manufacturers and suppliers present. This is also a pioneering project in Portugal.
It is, also because of this, increasingly important to take part in Export Home , as an exhibitor?
Export Home is the only exhibition in Portugal which is open exclusively to the professional market. This fact alone helps create favourable conditions for the development of business. Our ongoing concern with increasingly qualifying our visitors has also born fruit (loading new sources of information, together with the cleaning up of the data base, pre-accreditation/invitation by the Organisation, limiting the invitations given to exhibitors).
What type of products can visitors find at Export Home ?
Export Home mirrors the trends in the national and international market. Although visitors can enjoy many different styles, at the moment the exhibition is more turned towards modern and designer furniture. The more classic and rustic styles have been reinvented and we have had a good sample of this. Apart from this, visitors can admire high quality products in the field of lighting, upholstery and decorative fabrics.
All of these sectors/products will also be represented in Pavilion 1, which will be devoted to the Contract market. This means that in Pavilion 1 you will find the companies capable of, both technically and organisationally, answering to the requests of potential corporative clients.
How will contact between exhibitors and foreign visitors be promoted?
An important project, and one which we have been developing over the last few years, is the Hosted Buyers programme, which draws a very important critical mass to our exhibition and our companies, which position themselves in Export Home with a clear export vocation.
For 2008, improvements to this programme will be felt. There will be a widening of the range of professional visitors, with the opening up of the exhibition to the Contract sector visitor. This initiative “forces us”, as a result, to broaden our actions to markets which up until now had not been considered a priority. Dubai and Angola are just two examples.
We will also be providing our guests a Business Meeting Point, with a social area and a meeting room, as well as a cultural programme which is still being drawn up and which will try to involve foreign visitors with the external surroundings of the exhibition.
In terms of numbers (exhibitors and visitors), what are the predictions?
The average for the last few years was 330 exhibitors. In 2008, we will be retaining this level and we also hope to maintain the 40 000 visitors (roughly), with the ongoing concern of attracting more and better visitors each year. Foreign attendance is led by Spain, followed by France, Belgium, Italy and Russia. In its 2007 edition, Export Home welcomed 2 099 foreign visitors from over 20 different countries.
What, for you, would be a positive outcome of the 2008 edition?
For the organisers, if the business of exhibitor companies improves, this would be a positive outcome. And that these companies manage to open their doors to new clients and new international markets, considering the high potential of Portuguese furniture, which is one of the best in the world.
How did the idea of changing the days of the exhibition, so that it does not cover a Sunday, emerge? What do the organisers hope to achieve with this change?
We consulted exhibitors who took part in the last edition and, on the whole, they expressed an interest in having the exhibition between Tuesday and Saturday, thus eliminating Sunday. With this change we hope to reduce the number of members of the public, who generally have access to invitations sent out by companies, attending the exhibition. The general public is very important to us and to the sector and that is why we have designed another exhibition (EXPONOR INHOUSE) which is held one week later and which complements Export Home, but is at non-professional visitors. Exhibitor companies have much to gain from staying on after Export Home to present their products at Inhouse to the final consumer, be this directly or indirectly, through a client of theirs, supporting their client in promoting the business of both.
How will the connection between EXPOT HOME and EXPONOR INHOUSE be made?
Exponor Inhouse follows on from Export Home , as a place where the public can admire the novelties on display, discover the latest trends and witness the best in terms of innovation and design that the market has to offer. This is why this exhibition is held the following week. It represents a closing of the manufacturer-shop-end consumer cycle. Exponor Inhouse also includes other sectors, such as the swimming pool sector and outdoor and/or garden decoration.
Throughout its 20 editions, how has EXPORT HOME contributed to the development of the furniture sector in Portugal?
As an international exhibition, Export Home has encouraged visits by international buyers and, with this, has increased business for companies both at the national and the international level.
Export Home is the only exhibition in Portugal open exclusively to the professional market. This fact alone helps create favourable conditions for business development.
Overall, across all of the editions of the exhibition, how many visitors have visited the pavilions at EXPONOR as part of this exhibition?
We put this estimate at over 600 000 visitors.
In your opinion, what were the most memorable moments in the last twenty years for EXPORT HOME?
The emergence of a professional furniture exhibition and, later, its transformation into the most important furniture exhibition in Portugal. Then, the adjustment and change of companies to new furniture styles, keeping up with the challenges and the trends in global markets. Thirdly, the concern shown by exhibitors in improving the quality of their pieces and presenting them to new markets.
Since the exhibition is also known for its parallel activities, what will be the contribution of EXPORT HOME 2008 for stimulating the sector?
A cornerstone of Export Home is its range of parallel activities. These contribute to the development of the sector and enable participants, exhibitors and visitors to the exhibition to discover the most up to date techniques and trends in the furniture industry.
The Catwalk for Innovation – a premiere – and the Design Event, an already established feature, are the high points of the exhibition.
