New Italian Stone Show in 2013
BARI, Italy – A new natural-stone exhibition will debut in this Adriatic Coast city next spring.
MediStone Expo will run May 15-18 at the Fiera del Lavante in Bari, with a focus on the domestic Italian market and surrounding region. Promoters hope to draw 10,000 attendees to the inaugural outing.
Called “The Mediterranean Stone Event,” MediStone Expo is being organized by CarraraFiere (producers of the biennial CarraraMarrmotec stone event) in cooperation with EffeEvents.
Click photo to enlarge“The reasons of our choice are pretty clear,” said Giorgio Bianchini, president of CarraraFiere, and Francesco Curri, of EffeEvents, at a Sept. 13 press conference in Bari. “Puglia has the most important stone district of southern Italy; Bari, with its international exhibition centre and its traditions, represents the natural entrance gate for all those who operate in the Mediterranean area.
“We worked on the creation of an event which could allow the companies to keep their business contacts and promote their products in a territory which represents a natural location for the industry.”
In 2011, the southern regions of Italy exported 575,000 metric tons of stone materials equal to 14% of the national output in terms of quantity and 10% of the total value, confirming a huge capacity both in transformation and commercialization. The Puglia region itself shows approximately 8,800 people working in 197 companies involved with quarrying activity and 1,130 companies in processing.
In the first six months of 2012, the local export of cut, shaped and finished products totaled €9.1 million, a 41.82% increase compared to the same period in 2011. At the same time, rough materials’ exports jumped 13.98% with a total value of €9.1 million.
MediStone Expo will present the gamut from rough materials to finished products quarrying, processing and finishing technologies; sculpture and funerary art; and, handling and transportation machines.
Promoters aim to host at least 200 exhibitors in a 20,000 m² exhibit area, and bring in more than 10,000 visitors. (The recent CarraraMarmotec in May drew 11,753 visitors and 267 exhibitors.)
“This (MediStone Expo) will be a highly focused event,” said Gianfranco Viesti, president of Fiera del Levante . “We discussed about the need of new, specialized exhibitions and today we are here to present the first event dedicated to natural stone, a significant market for our country and for our Region. It is a highly dynamic industry sector in which we are proud to excel.”
For more information, go here.
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