UFI General Assembly reviews a year of advancements

01.11.2023

Representatives from UFI member companies from around the world met in Las Vegas (USA) today to review UFI’s activities throughout 2023 and to confirm plans for the year ahead.

The 2023 UFI General Assembly took place before the UFI Global Congress, which is welcoming around 500 industry leaders from more than 50 countries and regions this week. With the pandemic in the industry’s rearview mirror, the assembly reviewed a year defined by new global challenges and opportunities.

Chaired by UFI’s current president, Michael Duck, the General Assembly reviewed and previewed the association’s initiatives to support UFI’s members around the world. Membership has grown to reach a new all-time high of more than 820 member companies, representing 86 countries and regions. Michael Duck summarised the year: “Trade fairs have proven to be powerful catalysts for economic growth. By bringing together businesses, investors, and consumers, they serve around the world as a marketplace for new ideas, products, and services. The successful trade fairs of this year have facilitated numerous business transactions, generating revenue, stimulating job creation, and fostering economic development. They have been instrumental in revitalising industries that were severely impacted by the pandemic.”

Duck continued: “UFI had a busy and successful year as well. I can report to you today that our community is bigger than ever, with more than 820 companies listed as members.”To reflect the growing number of member companies based in North America and doing business there, the UFI president announced the launch of a dedicated North America chapter in the association. Duck said: “Around 7 percent of UFI’s global membership are headquartered in this region, and more than a quarter are active here. UFI’s leadership has decided to set up a North America Chapter that will comprise Canada, the US, and Mexico, as a legacy of this year’s Global Congress taking place in the US.”

Summarising UFI's activities for 2023, Kai Hattendorf, CEO and managing director of UFI says: “The past twelve months have certainly been busy. We ran more event around the world than ever before, and also have seen UFI returning to in person events in Asia. We have been able to extent UFI’s educational offers with new on-site editions of our core programmes across multiple regions. UFI research has confirmed our industry has recovered globally from the pandemic slump. And we have seen some real breakthroughs in our advocacy work, being recognised by entities like the UN, the OECD, ISO, and others.” 

Throughout the year, UFI’s work focused on industry reopening and recovery, against a challenging backdrop of world events, fluctuating economic conditions around the world, and ongoing pandemic closures, especially in China.
UFI’s main activities in the past year included: 

UFI events & communities
In 2023, UFI has run the full programme of in person events again. In addition, UFI Connects and other digital formats continue to be used as a complementary type of events. The sold-out Global CEO Summit (GCS) took place in Lisbon, Portugal. Following the pan-Asian reopening, the Asia-Pacific Conference took place in person again, in March, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The LatAm Conference took place in San José, Costa Rica, in April, followed by the MEA Conference in May in Doha, Qatar. The European Conference in June in Maastricht, The Netherlands, ended the series of regional conferences for the year, collocating two UFI Forum events and launching the initial Event Directors Summit. 

In addition, other events were organised as well, serving the need of members to meet and connect. UFI backed and supported the Sustainable Events Summit in New York, USA, in September, as part of New York Climate Week. The association co-organised UFI Expert Days in Malaysia and Bahrain, and – together with AEO, SACEOS, and SISO - organised the 2nd edition of the Asia CEO Summit in Singapore in October. The 2024 UFI events schedule is available at www.ufi.org/events.

Research
UFI delivers regular research insights on global, regional, and topical themes, most of them are widely considered as the global industry benchmarks. Most notably, two editions of the “UFI Global Barometer” report were released. Conducted in collaboration with many UFI association members, both editions track the industry’s recovery and post-pandemic growth, showing a growing number of markets on course to exceed their respective 2019 record years in 2023. Additional research is to be released around the UFI Global Congress.

Advocacy
UFI’s engagement around industry advocacy is growing significantly – in line with the fact that the association is being seen and recognized as the global representative of the exhibitions segment of the events industry. By working with global entities like the UNFCCC, OECD, ISO, and others, UFI is able to position and represent the sector’s interests. Together with partner associations, UFI is supporting the work of Industry presences in Brussels (EEIA) and Washington, DC (ECA). UFI continues to host and facilitate “Global Exhibitions Day”, the industry’s annual day of campaigning. The 2023 edition again reached an audience in more than 100 countries around the world. 

Education
As requested by the industry, UFI launched the “UFI Certified Professional” (UCP) designation in 2021. The first UCP programme hosted by an organisation took place in July 2023 in Malaysia, hosted and supported by MyCEB. 20 participants achieved their UCP accreditation there alone. Multiple editions of the “Exhibition Management School” have taken place again in 2023, online and on-site, most recently in Riyadh, Saudi. In addition, the first post-pandemic edition of the UFI-VMA Venue Management School will take place in Shenyang, China, in December 2023.