Almost all individual companies have re-confirmed attendance and new exhibitors, as well as redesigned and expanded layouts for Piedmont, Tuscany, Sardinia and Vininternational: these are just some of the news items for 2017. The international operator invitation service for exhibitor companies will be activated in January. Enrolments for Sol&Agrifood and Vinitaly competitions now open.

Wine-growing companies are already at work for the next edition of Vinitaly scheduled 9-12 April 2017 (www.vinitaly.com). The almost complete confirmation of attendance by individual companies taking part last year and the number of new entries provide the first signals of the dynamism of the Italian wine sector. This unequivocally highlights a greater propensity to invest in first person through attendance with individual stands and recognizable brands and style.

«To enhance our appeal for exhibitors,” said Giovanni Mantovani, CEO of Veronafiere, « in recent years we have implemented new services and ensured progressive upgrading of our exhibition halls which – well in time for the 2017 show – will provide even more space, allowing us to increase the number of wine cellars as well overall improvements to the layout of the exhibition centre. In addition, Veronafiere’s business plan for the next four years, » Mantovani went on, « envisages 72 million euros out of the total 94 millions for improvements to exhibition centre infrastructures, digital transformation and construction of parking facilities for more than 3,000 cars».

More space and a new exhibition hall

Piedmont will take even more space, thanks to the expansion and restyling of Hall 10: this improvement meets the need to meet demand from new exhibitors as well as to enable a number of wine cellars enjoy a location inside their specific geographic area of reference. Wine producers from Sardinia will also benefit from an expanded show area in Hall 8, which also hosts the specialist Vinitalybio and Vivit-Wines, Winegrowers and Terroirs shows as well as the group show set up by Fivi (Italian Federation of Independent Wine-Growers). There are also innovations for Tuscany and Vininternational, through the creation of a large exhibition area measuring approximately 4,000 square meters in place of the two separate tensile structures used until 2016.

Layout changes and new arrivals

«The review of the layout, » said Gianni Bruno, Vinitaly Area Manager, « will enable a number of companies to locate their stands in the Hall hosting their home regions, while others will return with a larger, high-impact set up».

New entries include cellars from the USA and the United Kingdom attending Vininternational for the first time, in addition to the Spanish group show set in motion thanks to collaboration with ICEX and exhibitors from Switzerland, France, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Croatia, Argentina, Portugal, Australia and South Africa.

Foreign buyers will benefit from the free badge service and b2b meetings with Taste & Buy. The international operator invitation service for exhibitor companies will be activated in January, with the issue of free entrance badges. Launched in 2016, the service immediately achieved excellent results by streamlining invitations for companies and improving the quality of visiting operators, thanks to checks carried out directly by Veronafiere. In relation to « pure » b2b, the Taste&Buy initiative once again organises meetings for foreign buyers organised directly by Vinitaly and exhibitors, with more companies taking part every year.

Many events in the run-up to Vinitaly

The run-up to the main show in Verona involves many initiatives organised under the Vinitaly brand name designed to promote wines and provide marketing tools for top companies. These events include, between January and March, trips by Vinitaly International to San Francisco, New York, Miami, Houston and Chengdu in China (www.vinitalyinternational.com/calendar).

The International Packaging Competition is scheduled for 1 March, while 31 March-2 April sees the return of the 5 Star Wines Award flanked on the opening day (31 March) by the Wine Without Walls prize dedicated to wines made without sulphites or containing no more than 40 mg/l (entries are open for all competitions through the site www.vinitaly.com).

The eve of Vinitaly (8 April) welcomes the grand OperaWine tasting event (www.operawine.it with the companies and wines of 2017) coordinated by Vinitaly International, while the certification course organised by Vinitaly International Academy is brought forward to 4-8 April (www.vinitalyinternational.com/vinitaly-international-academy).

Sol&Agrifood and Enolitech

Vinitaly is also flanked by Sol&Agrifood (www.solagrifood.com), in turn preceded 15-20 February by the Sol d’Oro Northern Hemisphere Competition and 20-21 March by EvooDays, the new training and information initiative dedicated to operators in the extra virgin olive oil sector. Enolitech is also held in conjunction with Vinitaly (www.enolitech.it). This year, it is even better integrated with the main Vinitaly show thanks to moving Hall F closer to the Piedmont Pavilion (Hall 10).

Business in the exhibition centre, wine lovers in the city. 2016 welcomed 29,000 wine lovers who will once again enjoy their specific area in 2017 for tastings, wine culture and conviviality thanks to Vinitaly and the City (Friday 7-Tuesday 11 April). After last year’s expansion of this off-show event, with a bigger than ever programme spread more widely around the city’s historic sites, Veronafiere once again confirms its determination to keep b2c events completely distinct from b2b occasions hosted in the exhibition centre.

Traffic

The objective of sustainable mobility in efficiency and environmental terms will be pursued by strengthening transfer services between Park&Ride facilities located close to motorway exits, as well as the Verona Porta Nuova Railway Station, the city centre and Verona-Villafranca Valerio Catullo Airport. All the latest traffic news and information will be available as of January on the Vinitaly website (www.vinitaly.com), through press releases and on Veronafiere social media networks.