Purpose and objectives
The purpose of
the Association of Swiss Fairs ASF is to promote the Swiss fair and exhibition industry in terms of its economic significance, the quality of events and the awareness of society.
To achieve these objectives, the Association is active within the industry in promoting awareness, fostering contact and industry-specific exchange, supporting mutual understanding, collaboration and information, and in training and education within the exhibition industry.
The Association safeguards common external interests in dealing with authorities, industry associations and media. It has set itself the task of promoting the fair and exhibition industry both nationally and internationally through joint PR and marketing programmes and by maintaining international links within the industry.
Membership of the Association of Swiss Fairs ASF is eligible to any person or body regularly organizing fairs of at least regional importance at permanent exhibition venues. The Association of Swiss Fairs ASF currently has 26 exhibition organizers as members.
Working Group Communication
The Working Group Communication reports to the Board of the Association and, in this capacity, formulates the ASF's communication activities. This includes, in particular, producing the annual fair calendar "Switzerland Center for Trade Fairs", advertising and promotion in general, the Internet presence and the collation of Swiss fair statistics.
One of the tasks of the Working Group Communication is to produce statistics for the Board about the infrastructures offered by the Association's members and about the fairs held each year. The statistics are used for external communications purposes and provide information on the permanent gross exhibition space available both indoors and outdoors, the number of parking spaces, and conference and catering facilities. They also include data on the number of permanent staff employed by fair companies. Furthermore, the statistics give an overview of the number of fairs held by the members of the Association, and a breakdown of events into trade fairs, themed public fairs and exhibitions featuring more than one industry. What's more, the figures show exhibitor and visitor numbers, as well as the net space occupied in each exhibition field.
Communication
Purpose
The purpose of the ASF's external relations work is to highlight the importance of fairs and actively promote Switzerland as an exhibition venue both nationally and internationally.
Objectives
The ASF's primary information objectives are:
- To highlight the economic, social and cultural importance of fairs and exhibitions
- To influence political opinion-forming and the form of those legal structures relevant to trade fair organizers
- o create goodwill, understanding and a basis of support for the particular concerns of exhibition organizers
- To consolidate and establish existing and new relationships
- de présenter les objectifs et les prestations des sociétés organisatrices
- To publicize the tasks and services of exhibition organizers
- To draw attention to the infrastructures and organizational structures of fair companies.
The most important special information objectives are:
- To circulate the fair calendar internationally, nationally and regionally
- Advertising and PR in the context of joint campaigns
Voluntary control of Trade Fair and Exhibition Statistics
At its inception in 1991, the FKM Swiss Association for the voluntary audit of fair and exhibition figures declared the comparability and reliability of those to be one of its fundamental principles.
When FKM Suisse was set up and launched there was unanimous agreement that it should observe the principles and rules of its sister companies in Germany and Austria, basing itself on them in order to guarantee that figures would be comparable internationally.
FKM has drawn up standard rules for determining exhibitor, space and visitor numbers, as well as visitor structures. Compliance with these rules is checked by an auditor. This approach makes it very easy to compare individual events.
Around six Swiss fair and exhibition organizers have more than 17 events a year audited by FKM. The resulting data are then published on the Internet.
Alongside other European audit organizations, FKM is one of the publishers of the European Trade Fair and Exhibition Statistics booklet which appears every autumn. The publication features audited data from around 1,320 trade fairs in 19 countries.
