Little more than a year remains until the next edition of HostMilano, with its slot on the trade fair calendar of 22 to 26 October 2021; but there are already plenty of ideas, projects in progress, networking proposals and adaptive solutions in a system that has changed and will change even more in the near future. The Ho.Re.Ca sector is certainly one of those hit hardest by the health emergency: new social habits, logistics and safety are themes that must be addressed with new methods and solutions.
In this transformed universe the proposal of the hospitality trade fair par excellence for professionals, born in 1966 and since 2007 knew as HostMilano, capable of bringing together all the sectors that gravitate around hospitality – from tableware to restaurants, coffee to pastries and ice cream, bars to furnishings for public venues. The event produced by Fiera Milano has stayed in touch with companies and operators during the lockdown phase and the subsequent restart, working together to design the rebound.
“About one year after the ‘ribbon cutting,’ we can say there is a great desire to begin again, and to finally have a chance to meet in person,” says the Director of HostMilano, Simona Greco, who provides us with an overview of the present situation in the industry.
Orders are on the rise and there has undoubtedly been a comeback after the months of closure. But the world of hospitality did not stand still, and during the forced lockdown it has had a chance to think about how to reinvent itself, with creativity and courage, wagering on innovation. We have seen the spread of new ideas and inter-sector contaminations, confirming and amplifying trends towards sustainability, health, regeneration of social spaces. From my personal vantage point, I think the future will belong to those who know how to observe the market rationally, grasping new opportunities.”
Opportunities and ideas companies have expressed through the creation of ecological modular dividers and the creation of a new type of 100% recyclable drinking glasses, derived from a mixture of natural mineral salts; from innovative solutions for the sanitization of spaces to the utilization of touchless devices and apps connected to the IoT.
Precisely these themes of innovation and sustainability will form the basis for the next edition of HostMilano, in perfect continuity with the past.
The “Smart Label Host Innovation Award has become an international prize, and it is an indispensable tool to understand where the hospitality industry is headed in the future – Simona Greco continues. – Also in the next iteration, there will be in-depth seminars for architects and a focus on luxury baked goods, with the expert Iginio Massari. As always, the fair will be a place of education and information in all its sectors, with hundreds of events including updates, workshops and seminars. To make everything more accessible, we have concentrated on communication, with a team of professionals working 365 days a year on news, observatories and webinars. The website of HostMilano has been completely updated to bring emphasis to all this work.”
On the issue of digital communication, we should mention the project that has been joined by HostMilano, the Fiera Milano Platform, dedicated to the community of players of reference (exhibitors, visitors, buyers, journalists, bloggers and opinion leaders) that makes an ecosystem of services available as well as reinforcement of the contents of sites and social network accounts of the individual fairs, thus contributing to make the experience more ‘phygital,’ halfway between physical and digital.
Lind DNA | Host Contract and Table Selection
For exhibiting companies, the support on the part of HostMilano will have another concrete development: “Fiera Milano has decided to support small and medium business, facilitating access to credit offered for investment in participation in fair events and conventions, thanks to agreements made with leading banking institutes and financial companies. Fiera Milano will reimburse (totally or in part) the interest accumulated on the financing itself. Furthermore: exhibitors will also have access to the contributions and support issued by Sace Simest for participation in trade fairs and exhibitions in Italy.”
