Rimini, 13th March 2021 - 250 exhibitors on the platform, 268 buyers from 60 countries with over 2,000 appointments already scheduled. Over 200 events organized by IEG and exhibitors in the Vision Plaza and the Sigep Lab.
With these figures, Italian Exhibition Group (IEG) is raising the curtain on the out-of-home market, starting from the dessert and coffee foodservice sector. While awaiting the live edition in January 2022 of SIGEP, the international expo dedicated to artisan gelato, pastry, bakery and the coffee world, from 15th to 17th March, IEG will enable thousands of enterprises from the Italian and international out-of-home dessert and coffee food service world to digitally converge on Sigep Exp The Digital Experience, a platform (and relative app, which can be reached by registering on the site https://en.sigep.it ) for meeting the community of professionals and companies of its four product chains. An opportunity for the entire Horeca world to do business, listen to trade members requirements, present new lines and develop networking.
The expo will open in live streaming at 10.30 am from the set in Rimini´s Palacongressi conference centre: the studio will host Rimini´s mayor Andrea Gnassi and the President of Italian Exhibition Group, Lorenzo Cagnoni. A remote speech will follow by Carlo Maria Ferro, President, ITA-Italian Trade Agency. Then there will be a link-up with CAST Alimenti HQ for the launch of the Sigep Lab set, with the participation of Director Vittorio Santoro, Master Gelato maker Marco Martinelli and Master Pastry Chef Iginio Massari. Conclusions, via video link-up, will be by the president of the Emilia-Romagna Region, Stefano Bonaccini.
The opening ceremony will be followed by the opening talk show from the Vision Plaza, entitled ´Living and consuming outside home, the challenges of tomorrow´. Following the welcome speech by IEG CEO, Corrado Peraboni, speeches will be by Simona Tondelli, of the Department of Architecture of the University of Bologna, Matteo Figura, Director, NPD Group Italia, Francesco Buschi, Strategy Director, FutureBrand.
The platform is already online: awaiting the official opening of the event, visitors will thus be able to consult the product catalogue, the new product section, events programmed and request appointments with exhibitors via the Agenda function.
At Sigep Exp, thanks to the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the ITA-Italian Trade Agency - which has opened over 30 offices worldwide - as well as the work by IEG´s regional advisors, buyers from China, India, Iran, Tunisia, Algeria, Brazil, Argentina, Russia, Ukraine, Denmark, Germany and Spain have already confirmed that they will be connected, thus maximizing networking and business opportunities.
The program of Sigep Exp The Digital Experience will feature demos held by some of the sectors´ major companies. The strong points of Sigep Exp - The Digital Experience are the ´Vision Plaza´ and the ´Sigep Lab´.
The ´Vision Plaza´ will strengthen SIGEP´S role as a flagship for the sector´s macro-trends and will be staged at Rimini´s Palacongressi conference centre in a real television studio, for a totally immersive interactive experience. In it, NPD Group, leading food and catering market analysis company, will field four aces from three time zones: Jochen Pinsker, senior vice president of Foodservice Europe, connected from Nuremberg; David Portalatin, senior vice president with Food Industry Advisor, from Houston; Sanjev Kangatharan, director of Foodservice Australia, from Sidney and Matteo Figura, director Foodservice Italy, from Rimini. Thanks to them, an insight will be provided on the growth factors and opportunities of digitalization in the out-of-home foodservice sector (based on SIGEP´s four product chains) before and after Covid-19, in Europe, the United States and Asia.
Moreover, the availability of the ITA-Italian Trade Agency for presentations will favour opportunities for networking and business development on the international front. Whereas, thanks to the partnerships with all the trade associations, the major Italian trade publications and the University of Gastronomic Science of Pollenzo, further talks will focus on product trends, knowledge of raw materials and the challenge of sustainability, from portions to packaging.
On the other hand, from CAST Alimenti´s aula magna in Brescia, ´Sigep Lab´ will be a production centre of ideas and techniques, a set featuring interviews and demos as well as outstanding figures among the hosts, and the major exponents of the Accademia Maestri Pasticcieri Italiani (Academy of Master Pastry Chefs), Conpait, the Organizing Committee of the Gelato World Cup, the Specialty Coffee Association Italy and Richemont Club Italy.
In Italy, in the year of the pandemic, the dessert and coffee foodservice sector was hit hard too. But it has shown that it is particularly proactive aiming at kick-starting with new crossovers, increased quality and distribution strategy diversification. For example, artisan gelato has featured a considerable increase in the amount of product delivered to clients´ homes: +133% in the lockdown period. delivery also favoured the tendency to deseasonalize consumption. This however did not prevent the turnover of artisan gelato parlours from dropping by 40%, passing from 2.5 to 1.5 billion euros.