The Fair of All Fairs: The Long Season of Specialist Shows

The long history of the Milan fairgrounds is dotted with innovative seasons and major revolutions, each connected to historical developments in society and the growth of Italy’s economy—one of the reasons for being of the Fair Board itself.
As such, the creation and widespread success of specialist industry shows represent an interesting case study to observe how the country’s business dynamics and economic trends have changed and developed.
While initially held concurrently, within the scope of the Milan Fair, industry shows progressively took on a life of their own, especially once the April Fair was discontinued at the start of the 1990s.

The first specialist show to be staged was the Animal Husbandry Show in 1948, as the intensive reconstruction efforts of the post-war years were beginning to wind down.
Just one year earlier, the fairgrounds had reopened their doors for the twenty-fifth Milan Fair, occupying almost the entire grounds in use before the war broke out. But with the advent of specialist shows, new exhibition areas were developed, along with huge thematic pavilions (Chemistry, Toys, Textiles, the Confectionery Industry, and for major companies), which expanded the facilities available to the fair.
The return to economic growth proved a springboard for the development of new programmes and new challenges, within a general climate of consolidation.

In the decade that followed, major works and new pavilions became the order of the day, as the fair reached a series of new milestones.
The year 1951 was marked by the National Radio and Television Show and by the opening of the Mechanics Pavilion. In 1952, for the thirtieth anniversary of the fair, an entire wet dock was built for the first Boat Show, which was followed at the end of the year by a new International Motorcycle Show. For the first time, the fairgrounds came alive for a full year of events, providing the perfect setting to showcase all the latest innovations, in particular those from the world of science and technology.
It was a trend that would increasingly take centre stage in the years to come.
The decade was also marked by the first National Household Appliance Show (1953), the first International Textiles & Clothing Show—MITAM (1957), and the very first GEC Show, dedicated to the graphics, publishing, and paper industries (1958). The following year it was the turn of the inaugural EMU Show, a showcase for Italian tooling machines.

With the economy booming, business for the fairgrounds similarly prospered.
Industry associations began institutionalizing their specialist shows, organizing major showcases for their sectors and investing more in their exhibitions at the general spring fair to make the most of the events staged during the year.
Thus the old pavilions bowed out, giving way to new thematic “Buildings” devoted to Mechanics, Agriculture, and Construction. They were golden years for various industries, which all launched their own specialist shows.
In 1960, the film industry celebrated the launch of MIFED, the Italian Film and TV Documentary Exchange, which in no time grew into a world marketplace for the sector.
The leather goods industry instead focused its exhibition efforts in the International MIPEL Expo (1962), showcasing leather and fashion accessories.
For the information and communication technology industry, the launch of the specialist show SMAU was a turning point for its growth and development, as similarly was the PLAST expo (1964) for the plastics industry.
And then there was MACEF, the International Home Show (1964), which proved a major boost for the homewares industry.
The most important of all the new initiatives, however, in terms of the impact and success it has enjoyed over its now sixty-year-history, was the Milan Furniture Fair. At the inaugural fair in 1961, 328 exhibitors took part, showcasing their wares in an exhibition space of some 12,000m2 and attracting 12,000 visitors from Italy and abroad. Six years later, the fair had expanded into a major international event, underpinning the fortunes of the Fair Board and the City of Milan.

The economic downturn and energy crisis that struck the world in the early years of the decade hit hard, but it did not knock out the determination of Italy’s tight-knit industrial fabric, made up largely of small and medium enterprises. With the same spirit, the Fair Board rose to meet the challenges of the period with new initiatives and adaptive solutions, which were rewarded by visitors and markets. By the time the worst of the crisis was over, the number of specialist shows had grown to 70, with over 40,000 exhibitors populating a year-long programme of major events, covering almost every industry sector.
Two were the key dates. The first was 1975, when INTEL was launched, the first International Electronics Show.
The second was 1978, when the fashion industry came into its own with the very first MODIT show, the forerunner of Milan Fashion Week, which would turn Milan into a global fashion capital. The approach that companies in the sector had taken by investing in quality was already proving a winner for the industry. The rest was done by the fashion parades and the creativity of Italy’s fashion designers at the showcase, which catalysed the attention of world media and industry players, sealing the success of Italy’s celebrated fashion industry.

The years of revival brought with them the first big structural transformation of the fair machine, providing the blueprint for what a few years later would lead the fairgrounds into a new era.
In 1981, exhibitors from 22 countries came together for the first International Tourism Exchange—BIT. The objective of the new initiative was to create a quality platform for promoting the tourist offers of world tourist operators. The following year instead marked by the launch of the Information Technology and Communication Show.
The year 1986 instead marked the beginning of the end of an era. The old Milan Fair was reorganized into the Great April Fair, featuring a brand new layout for thematic exhibitions in the new spaces of a new fairgrounds.
The industry shows held that year grew to 77, attracting a total of 46,000 exhibitors—so many that the Fair Board put its machinery into gear for the opening a new Southern Pavilion the following year, to keep up with the growing exhibitor demand.

The closing down of the general fair in 1990 paved the way for two editions of an event reserved to industry operators only, within the framework of International Week.
The real magnet of attraction for business people, however, lay in the initiatives and opportunities of specialist industry shows. Everything was growing—the number of industry exhibitions (now 80), the exhibition space (1.5 million square metres), visitor numbers (almost three million) and exhibitors (over 33,000, including almost 4,000 international exhibitors).

In just a few years, specialist shows became the true driving force for the growth of businesses, a key source of new orders.
As a mirror to business innovation and new economic trends, industry shows emerged to the forefront as major showcase for competitors and markets to meet—an opportunity not to be missed. Their strength lay in their ability to bring together supply and demand, facilitating the conquest of new markets and frontiers.
If trade fairs were changing, it was because the economy was changing. It was a revolution, fuelled by the creation of new sectors and specialist fields; the radical overhaul of internal business logic—such as the new emphasis in modern organizations on trading units, distribution, and customer service; the growth of new industries, such as the tertiary industry and ICT; the rolling out of new processes; and the challenges raised by globalization.
In all of that, the role of the public was changing, too. Once the stars of the show, the public was now more of an accessory to the event, with the traditional visitor to the fair making way for buyers and business people, entrepreneurs and professionals. A specialist crowd that was now emerging as the new target of fairs.