Export Home 2008: Export Home celebrates its 20th aniversary
Export Home 2008: 20 years after its first edition, Export Home is stronger than ever. In 2008, the main exhibition devoted to furniture emerges with a new strength and new suggestions, but with the same quality as ever.
Between the 26th of February and the 1st of March, the doors at Porto International Fair will once again open to welcome professionals in a sector which is becoming increasingly important for the health of the national trade balance.
Increasingly international
The organisers hope that, as in previous years, approximately 40 thousand visitors will come to Exponor, in Porto, for five business-filled days. Awaiting this avalanche of furniture sector agents will be 330 exhibitors, representing the best of what is made in Portugal and the rest of the world in the field of furniture.
In fact, Export Home is, above all, an exhibition with an international dimension, having been visited in the last edition alone by 2 099 foreign visitors from over 20 countries. Spain, France, Belgium, Italy and Russia were the home countries of most of these visitors.
Also for this reason, this exhibition emerges, in each edition, as the most important moment of the year for anyone with an ambition to internationalise their business or, for those who have already taken this step, to consolidate their presence in international markets, in particular the emerging economies in Europe.
Exhibition opens up to the Contract sector
And, to celebrate the 20th edition of Export Home, Exponor has a series of surprises in store. Firstly, the exhibition will have a new schedule, since it will now be held between Tuesday and Saturday. Sunday will, therefore, be left out of the programme of the exhibition, in order to ensure it is visited exclusively by professionals. Moreover, in 2008 the exhibition will be opened to players in the Contract sector which, inevitably, will attract visitors from countries which up until now had not been considered a priority, such as Dubai or Angola.
Export Home will be devoting pavilion 1 to the Contract sector, making this exhibition not only the showcase of the main novelties in furniture, lighting, textiles and decoration, but also a supply centre for Portuguese Projects in the National Interest, which generate a high level of furniture supply. Moreover, in yet another effort to ensure the success of Export Home, the organisers, in order to encourage more visits from buyers, have strengthened the Hosted Buyers programme.
Parallel activities marked by innovation
The organisers of Export Home will be arranging a series of parallel activities, which will take place alongside the exhibition. Some are well known, while others will be truly novel initiatives in the national setting. Initiatives such as the Design Event, promoted by the Paredes Business Association, and the Catwalk for Innovation, sponsored by Outros Mercadus, with the institutional backing of APD – Portuguese Designers Association and in collaboration with the Designer Nuno Sá Leal, are sure to surprise anyone visiting Porto International Fair.
For all this, but especially for the quality and modern design of the furniture on display, Export Home will be, between the 26th of February and the 1st of March, an exhibition where attendance is a must.
Parallel Activities
From 26th February to 1st March
26th February | 3 pm
Inauguration of the “VIII Design Event”
Where: Gallery in Pav. 6
Organiser: AEParedes/C.M. Paredes
29th February| 9 pm
Award of the “VIII Design Event” Prize
Where: Dinner celebrating the 20 years of EXPORT HOME
Organiser: EXPONOR/AEParedes/C.M. Paredes
26th February | 1st March (10 am – 8 pm)
VIII Design Event
Gallery in Pav. 6
Organiser: AEParedes/ C. M. Paredes
Catwalk for Innovation
Gallery in Pav. 5
Organiser: EXPONOR/ Outros Mercadus/ APD – Portuguese Designers Association and in collaboration with the Designer Nuno Sá Leal
