Paris, France – The IFEMA Exhibition Centre in Madrid, Spain will be the site of the inaugural UFI Global CEO Forum for Exhibition Organizers (UCF) on January 21-23, 2009. UFI’s newly branded event was formerly the International CEO Forum launched six years ago by Seven Smulders and the Netherlands Council for Trade Promotion. Seven Smulders will continue to be involved in planning and marketing the event. Attendance will be limited to top-level executives of trade show organizing companies on an invitation-only basis. Registration fees for UFI members will be discounted.
UFI President Cliff Wallace said in a March statement to UFI members that the Paris-based organization had always seen a CEO forum as a desirable addition to its own portfolio; however had been reluctant to launch an event that would compete directly with the ICF. “Now we can take advantage of the established tradition of this internationally renowned event and effectively merge all the resources to develop one great annual forum for the benefit of our exhibition industry,” Wallace said.
Reach Cliff Wallace at +852 2582 7800 or cliffwallace@hkcec.com; Seven Smulders at +31 65 1495445 or sevennch@wxs.nl; Vincent Gerard, UFI managing director, at (33) 1 42 67 99 12 or v.gerard@ufi.org
