Vitrum 2021 reaches 6.150 admissions for the restart edition

The 22nd edition of the international glass technologies trade show organized by GIMAV closed its 4-day run with 120 exhibitors and 6,150 visitors from 75 countries. VITRUM Life digital twin garnered 110,000 visits. Milan Glass Week, the off-site event in its first edition, a huge success with many fully-booked events. President Zandonella Necca: «Building synergies with the entire supply chain and engaging the public is the key to making Milan the glass capital». Organizers are already at work planning Vitrum 2023 and Glass Week 2022..

Despite pandemic-related difficulties and restrictions, the 22nd edition of VITRUM, the biennial international exhibition dedicated to the world of glass processing organized by GIMAV, closes positively despite the difficulties and restrictions caused by the pandemic, confirming the vitality of a sector devoted to innovation and where Made in Italy represents recognized excellence. From 5 to 8 October the pavilions of Fiera Milano hosted 120 exhibitors from 16 different countries, that they met with 6.150 visitors, of which the 45% from abroad representing 74 countries. They were 22.450 total square meters of exhibition space, with an increase in the average size of the individual stands equal to approximately 20% compared to the previous edition of 2019.

"Even though the world has changed in the last two years, VITRUM continues with determination in its path to establish itself as a point of reference among the trade fairs specialized in machinery and equipment for glass processing, an essential meeting point for all operators in the glass industry "he says the president of VITRUM Dino Zandonella Necca. "This year the exhibitors participated in a big way, bringing the latest technologies and innovations to the fair and finding in VITRUM many opportunities for discussion and business. In addition to allowing producers, agents, buyers, representatives of Italian and international glass associations and specialized media to return to meet in attendance after many months, VITRUM 2021 has relaunched with two new features: the digital platform VitrumLife and VISION Milan Glass Week, with which the glass industry presented itself to the general public for the first time. We have definitely laid the foundations for Milan to become the capital of glass technologies for the years to come ».

Continuing to detail the numbers of this edition, VITRUM 2021 saw more than 13 million euros of machinery exhibited by companies; the category of producers represented 75% of the exhibitors. Present, thanks to the contribution of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and ICE Agenzia, 60 Top Buyers and Opinion Leaders from 29 Countries, which animated approx 400 appointments at the stands of Italian companies. Despite the conditions, the international character of the event is confirmed: 50% of visitors from Europe, the remainder proportionally distributed evenly among the other areas (Americas, Asia, Africa and Oceania).VitrumLife, the digital platform where it was possible to follow VITRUM online, he offered approx 50 hours of live videoo and a continuous flow of insights and news involving almost 31.000 users, 40% of which are international. The social channels dedicated to the event are also very popular, with 75.000 impressions for Instagram, over 41.000 users reached through the Facebook profile of the event who have generated more than 2.700 interactions, while Linkedin records 12.700 post views, + 188% average views and + 181% unique visitors.

Finally, la VISION Milan Glass Week, organized simultaneously with VITRUM to broaden the target to the entire glass supply chain, which has developed throughout the city of Milan, with two main focuses between Piazza Gae Aulenti and the Riccardo Catella Foundation, presented the excellence of the Italian glass industry to the city by attracting more than 10.000 visitors in total. The event took place under the patronage of the Lombardy Region and the Metropolitan City of Milan, in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, in partnership with Milano Wine Week and with Lifegate as a media partner.

Involved 6 Milanese museums, 12 glass buildings, 26 locations for the Road Map of collateral events, 20 venues for the "Vitrum Party on the Road ". 30 glass works were exhibited including the musical drums of El Cocal Glass Studio and the artistic installation by Monster of the Lagoon in Piazza Gae Aulenti, a realistic aquatic monster composed of 191 glass scales and more than six meters in length, which aroused the curiosity of citizens and tourists.

Among the over 45 events proposed in 4 days have been very successful in creative workshops for children (in collaboration with KiKolle Lab) and le guided tours to discover the Milan of Glass (organized by the Order of Architects of Milan and by AIHV - Association Internationale pour l'Histoire du Verre): events sold out well before the official start of the Glass Week, demonstrating how much the city of Milan has found in this event the desire for active participation. 30 hours of live broadcast on online channels: the pages of the Glass Week embraced a large audience, confirming, as expected, this first edition as an event of precious interest, both physical and virtual. There are over 25 thousand unique users who interacted digitally and almost a million users reached, between Italy and abroad.

«On the basis of these successes we can already launch the next events and think even bigger - concludes Dino Zandonella Necca -. The next appointment will be Glass Week 2022, for which the call-to-action dedicated to exhibitors has already started. We are already working on next year's edition with the intention of multiplying the appointments in Milan, meetings, workshops and laboratories dedicated to children. Even because 2022 will be the International Year of Glass and for Milan this will be an opportunity to once again step onto the international stage. For the XNUMXrd edition of Vitrum the goodbye is instead in 2023, from 5 to 8 September at Fiera Milano, with the prospect of finding oneself in a context no longer marked by the pandemic and at a peak for the economy, and therefore, the possibility of organizing the largest living room VITRUM ever».