VENDITALIA CELEBRATES ITS TENTH ANNIVERSARY, AND RECOUNTS THIRTY YEARS OF HISTORY
Only one month away from the Fieramilanocity event, which will be held from 21 to 24 May, VENDITALIA press and organization office proposes a fascinating overview of 30 years of Vending exhibitions
The year 2008 marks celebrations of VENDITALIA’s tenth anniversary. The exhibition was held for the first time in Genoa in 1998 from 7 to 10 May. The ten-year period is an opportunity to consider ten years of activity and most of all, ten years of Vending. As a matter of fact, when analysing the history of this event, one discovers that celebrations should extend well beyond ten years of activity, almost thirty actually, if we think that MIDA, the first Vending exhibition, was also held in Genoa in 1979 from 5 to 8 April.
Hence, the main objective of this year’s show is to provide an overview of the exhibitions held over the past 30 years. The event is some sort of retrospective focusing on some crucial points of the exhibition, representing an international event not to be missed.
Celebrating a decade inevitably leads to go over the past, to take a look back in time, at previous exhibitions. Going through the exhibition archives was a fascinating experience, one that allowed retrieving past events, subjects and characters that would have been otherwise relegated to the memories of the people directly involved. Reading those documents, which were lying neglected in the CONFIDA archives, unearthed goals and successful achievements, as well as simple recounts of a Sector that was established also thanks to the meetings held during the previous 16 MIDA exhibitions, followed by the VENDITALIA events.
These two events only differ in terms of connotation and size. VENDITALIA has in fact evolved into an international and independent event, also based on the growing success of the previous Mostra Italiana exhibitions held at SIC first – Salone Internazionale del caffé di Genova (Genoa International coffee Show) –and at EXPO Commercio e Turismo in Milan at a later stage. Differences also depended on size. Following the sweeping success of the 11th Mida exhibition held in 1995, it was decided that the time had come to create an independent exhibition, increasing the exhibition area tenfold from 1995 to 1998.
It just so happened that on 5 April 1979, at the opening press conference of the first MIDA event hosted in Genoa, the Chairman of the Organizing Committee, Antonio Fiorentino, addressed the press as follows: “Talking to the press is particularly important as this is a new business, a useful, essential and extremely important service we can provide to society, one that has not always been properly promoted and acknowledged, mostly by the press.”
Indeed, we believe that those words once again became particularly relevant when CONFIDA resumed contact and strengthened relations with the media with the aim of promoting the Sector in connection with the start of the upgrading project “Carta dei Servizi CONFIDA” (CONFIDA Service Provision Card). The goals set out by the exhibition were also tremendously modern. The opening speech read as follows: “The first MIDA event, promoted by all Sector operators, has set out to be not a mere product display, but a means through which the category can discuss relevant issues and handle both positive and negative development factors”. Such words lay the foundations for a project that started thirty years ago and that is still going on, driven by unshakable perseverance and consistency.
The difficulties encountered by the Vending sector in adapting prices gradually in the face of inflation, and having to deal with multiples of 50 Lira, were discussed during the first year. It must be remembered that at the time a cup of coffee cost 50 Lira and that any attempts made to increase the cost up to 75 had made it more difficult to find the coins needed. That actually formed the basis for the birth and subsequent successful take-off of the cashless electronic payment Sector in Italy. These technologies soon put Italian companies in the lead worldwide.
As to the second MIDA exhibition held in 1980, the event represented an opportunity to officially introduce CONFIDA, the association established in 1979 that has represented the entire category since, inheriting the management of all the Vending events. The speech made by Leonzio Palumbo, the first MD of CONFIDA vending machine manufacturers, was very modern. At the time, he was already stressing the importance of defending quality standards: “Our major concern – he said at the opening conference held on 19 September 1980 – is not product demand. Our concern is that Management Companies are unable to balance proceeds with costs, and there is a danger that some manufacturers may put poor quality products on the market. Should that happen, it would not help solve the crisis”.
In short, there were many problems to sort out, however, Antonio Fiorentino, both a lawyer and the first CONFIDA Chairman, summed up the most important goal in a closing speech held at the end of the presentation of the three-year membership plan: “There is a lot to be done, because there are many problems to deal with. Our Sector virtually needs reinventing: this is no small feat, one that requires commitment and substantial resources”. Those were strong words that we still take pleasure in reading from the point of view of a Sector that has been able to build its own clear and well-defined identity. The great success of the Italian Vending System abroad rests on the professional approach that the sector has demonstrated at all levels. This is a Sector that has quietly built an international reputation for itself. This is a Sector that has focused on quality, away from the limelight. In fact, the Italian Vending sector has dynamically invested on service quality and consumer needs.
In actual fact, newspaper articles started emphasising the results achieved in terms of boosted image, welcoming the arrival of MIDA, then in its fourth year, in Milan. In fact, in 1985 the exhibition relocated from SIC in Genoa, to EXPO CT in Milan. During that same year the Milan-based exhibition centre also celebrated its twentieth anniversary. The event was highly publicized not only in terms of numbers of articles published, but also as regards the big names in Italian journalism that wrote the articles, including leading newspaper editors and chief editors such as Sergio Luciano, now the editor in chief of Economy weekly magazine; Nino Ciravegna, now chief editor of Sole 24 Ore and Luca Ferraiuolo, chief editor of APCOM press agency in Milan. The opening lines of an article published in Sole 24 ORE well describe the significance of this success “The traditional image is that of a machine that just swallows up the cash, refusing to dispense coffee, a machine you just want to kick and use only if you cannot possibly do without it. However, things quickly and radically changed over the years, soon turning bashed up coffee dispensers into sophisticated machines that interact with customers, offering impeccable standards of service.”
Many important people discussed the subject, such as Mino Damato, who at the time hosted the Rai programme “Domenica in”, Gianni Farneti, the then Coeditor of Panorama, and Giorgio Bocca, who had been invited for his well known aversion to vending machines, and who in the end had to admit that sometimes, food and services offered through automatic vending machines can actually make people’s life easier. Many more topics were discussed during the following exhibitions. It should be remembered by way of example the European issue debatedduring the 8th MIDA exhibition held in 1990, before Italy subscribed the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, or early debates held in 1992 on the issue of hazardous waste disposal. At the time, Gigi Proietti also participated, performing at an evening gala recital. The 1992 exhibition was a memorable event for the CONFIDA stand as well. Set in ancient Rome, the stand painstakingly reproduced the by now legendary Tesibio vending machine, screening from different displays a video of the history of the Italian Vending sector recounted by Piero Fabbro, who was the company Chairman at the time.
A period of time filled with important events but away from media attention then followed, like the meeting on hygiene-environmental issues, which were debated at the 10th MIDA in 1993, or the members’ charter change that took place at the 11th and last appointment of the Italian exhibition.
Three years later, in particular, on 7 May 1998, the first VENDITALIA exhibition was held in Genoa, representing the first and leading independent Vending exhibition in Europe. The event had been announced eight months before, on 24 September 1997, through the establishment of Venditalia Servizi srl founded by CONFIDA (Chairman, Goffredo Buttazzoni) and ANIDA (Chairman, Ettore Marzolo). The step taken was necessary, as Confida was unable to conduct financial business activities such as the exhibition. A side event, an exhibition on the history of vending machines, accompanied the latest technological advancements. During the first year, next to a survey related to the current trend in the Sector, an early interesting consumer survey conducted by Directa was presented. The picture resulting from the survey was one of strong Sector image improvement. Consumer satisfaction levels were constantly increasing and vending machines were seen more as service suppliers, and as a place where to rest and have a break. In the editorial article published in the magazine issue that covered the first new exhibition, Gian Franco Fassio, editor in chief of Vending Magazine, wrote: “VENDITALIA ’98 strengthened CONFIDA, image-wise. It also boosted it business-wise, generating all the positive repercussions that increased financial independence entails”.
The second exhibition held in 2000 focused on the importance of people and human resources for the development of automated refreshment services, despite the apparent overwhelming power of technology.
The third exhibition, which was held in 2002, registered record figures, extending over a surface area of approximately 20,000 sq m, and hosting an interesting exhibition on coins, ranging from ancient coins through to the era of the Euro. VENDITALIA represented the event that consecrated the changeover from the Lira to the Euro, at a moment in time when the Sector had been able to successfully get through a very critical situation.
The year 2004 produced commendable results: the 4th exhibition coincided with the formal acknowledgement of the event as an international trade fair. Such recognition awarded the development and organizational success of the event, both quality-wise and in terms of exhibitors and visitors coming from all over the world.
Memories of VENDITALIA 2006 are even more vivid, as the event moved for the first time from Genoa to Milan. We all remember the presentation of the CRA AC-Nielsen consumer survey and the guide on the subject of a proper diet, representing the first step by the Association towards the endorsement of the Department of Health Protocol called “Gaining health – Facilitating health choices”, which was subscribed on 3 May.
Let us now take a look at the present. Over the past few weeks, Venditalia Servizi srl organization office and Mirandola Comunicazione press office have been working frantically to organize VENDITALIA 2008, which will be held at Fieramilanocity from 21 to 24 May. The exhibition will be a showcase of the latest technological advancements and of a new product range that is in line with the most recent consumer expectations on eating habits out of the house, serving at the same time as an opportunity to present the latest updates on the Sector’s current economic situation. There is much anticipation for the exhibition, and we are pleased to believe that the goal set out by the first CONFIDA Chairman has now been definitely achieved. The Sector no longer needs “reinventing”, it simply has to be promoted with a wider and diversified public. This is no negligible commitment, and as always, VENDITALIA has the drive to act as the hub of a spreading and magnifying system.