The next edition of Vicenzaoro, which will run from September 9-13, 2022, is already fully booked, apart from some pandemic-driven curbs on Asian exhibitor attendance, and the show anticipates buoyant numbers of visitors, notably from the United States, Europe and Middle East, restocking for the upcoming festive season, and for Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day next year, Exhibition Director Marco Carniello tells Jewellery Outlook Editor David Brough.
Marco Carniello
Marco, is the September show mainly looking to achieve orders for the festive season? Why should international trade buyers attend the event?
Particularly for European retailers, Vicenzaoro September is the key event to prepare for the Christmas season.
Many international trade buyers will be attending Vicenzaoro September to re-stock for the most important sell-out events of the first half of next year, Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, notably in the United States.
September is a magical time to gather and network in Vicenza with lovely weather, its beautiful artistic treasures and good food.
What is the meaning of the fair’s slogan, “All at once”?
One of the key values of Vicenzaoro is that it is a platform for the entire industry.
This platform serves all companies, buyers, operators and participants in the jewellery sector – from machinery to brands, from gemstones to manufacturers. All of them are meeting at the Vicenzaoro show. All at once.
What will be the most outstanding new features of Vicenzaoro in September?
As pandemic restrictions have eased, all of us want to get together in-person, network and enjoy live experiences that can generate or consolidate business relationships.
Vicenzaoro will offer more events then ever where buyers can meet exhibitors – both at the fairground and in the city of Vicenza.
What progress have you made so far in terms of booking exhibitors? What types of potential exhibitors are you still looking to attract to the show?
It’s a great moment for Vicenzaoro: we are fully booked with the only exception being areas we allocate to Hong Kong and other Asian companies – unfortunately they are not yet free to travel as they would wish.
In general we are looking to strengthen our offering for our visitors and the key words are innovation, trends and trust.
What are your expectations for the trends in visitor numbers to Vicenzaoro in September? What trends are you seeing in terms of the types of professional visitors attending Vicenzaoro, and where are they coming from?
Last September was a great show with visitor numbers already very close to pre-Covid levels, and we are optimistic about attendance this September.
In the last two years we attracted many interesting new buyers by keeping open our halls with new shows and new formats.
We expect many Europeans, and we are getting a lot of enquiries from the United States, the Middle East and Asia.
How do you see the market outlook for precious jewellery, in light of current economic challenges due to the pandemic, rising inflation and the war in Ukraine?
We went through so many challenges during the pandemic that we feel we can deal with the new issues the world is facing now.
Adaptability is the key word that will make the industry more resilient and stronger.
We may have war, inflation and potentially recession, but this is a sector with many small and medium players, often concentrated in industrial clusters, and they have a high level of resilience.
And our job will be to support them as we have been doing all these years.
How is the show responding to the digital transformation of the gemstones and jewellery sector?
During the pandemic we have introduced many new formats, digital initiatives and projects.
We learned a lot and we are consolidating many new features that make visits to the fair more effective for business matching and scouting.
In retail as in fairs the future is “hybrid”, on-site and online with in-person experience playing a very central role.
