Positive Results for the New Abilmente Spring Concept

POSITIVE RESULTS FOR THE NEW ABILMENTE SPRING CONCEPT The creativity festival was held from the 23rd to the 26th March in Fiera di Vicenza

Vicenza, 26th March 2017 – A creative, inspiring journey featuring crochet, scrapbooking, tricot, patchwork, sewing, jewelry and cake design. Thousands of enthusiasts visited Abilmente Spring, the creativity festival, which boasted a new exhibition concept this year and closed today after its fourth day at the Vicenza fair district.

The trade show, organized by Italian Exhibition Group – a company formed from the merger of Rimini Fiera and Fiera di Vicenza – is the leading creative handmade event in Italy and a European benchmark for this sector. Once again, it attracted many visitors from all over Italy and from various European countries, particularly from central and northern Europe. Over 250 exhibitors attended the event, almost 30 of which were foreign, from France, Spain, Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic, India and Ecuador.

This first edition of Abilmente 2017 – which will return to Vicenza in October with Abilmente Fall, followed by Abilmente Roma in November - presented many new additions. The event featured two exhibition areas: “Fabbrica dei sogni” (Dream Factory – Hall 7), where enthusiasts could find inspiration for their creativity in fabrics, embroidery and jewelry, and “Ricordati di me” (Remember me – Hall 1), the area devoted to products for decorations, such as paper, paints, stencils, home décor, washi tape and rubber stamps.

Starting this year, the event was organised around Isole della Creatività (Creativity Islands), areas in which visitors could find new ideas and explore their passion by attending workshops and meeting the most famous creatives and bloggers in the sector.

Corrado Facco, Managing Director of Italian Exhibition Group, commented: “For this edition, we wanted to refresh the Abilmente concept in order to offer its thousands of fans even more engaging experiential content. The high number of visitors rewarded this decision and confirms the event’s leadership among the European trade shows in the sector. This is due to its constantly evolving format, which enables it to bring the best companies in the market together and to inspire visitors’ creativity with high-quality materials, new ideas and opportunities to take part in numerous practical demonstrations. We are also happy to have made Abilmente Spring 2017 a showcase for promoting projects with a great cultural impact and social significance.”

The Creativity Islands

“Mi racconti una storia” (Tell me a story – Hall 7), dedicated to children, parents and teachers, offered suggestions about how to make a bedroom unique, as well as hand-made products for children and workshops and recreational activities for mothers and children. “Il viaggio della vita” (The journey of life – Hall 1) presented exotic ideas and inspirations. In addition to materials for creating photo albums and frames, this area offered courses in watercolor painting, bookbinding and making travel journals.

“Profumo di Primavera” (Spring Fragrance – Hall 7) featured plants, fragrances and ideas for refreshing and beautifying the home. The presented projects included an installation by CreativeMamy, one of the most popular communities on Facebook, “The Magic of Colour” – the international patchwork exhibition, and a series of demonstrations and workshops. “La via delle idee” (The path of ideas – Hall 7) allowed visitors to meet the most famous creatives, to follow their demonstrations and live tutorials, and to find new collections and recently-printed handbooks. The participants were Emma Fassio, Monica Dal Molin, Monica Vinci, Alessandra Muraro, Nenna Fubelli and Laura Tremolada.

Among the prominent figures to attend Abilmente Spring was Joyce Escano, winner of the last edition of Bake Off Italia, who presented her new recipe book and put on a live cooking show.

The main projects at Abilmente Spring 2017

The various initiatives at Abilmente Primavera included important projects that combined creativity and social commitment. The Progetto Quid presented clothes made by a group of women with troubled backgrounds using fabrics that were destined to be pulped. In the Profondo Rosso Knit Café area, the Associazione “Sul filo dell’arte” exhibited the “Terrific cords” installation, consisting of red cords in reference to the tragic theme of violence against women. On Sunday 26th March, there was another event regarding this delicate issue – a flash mob to promote the La Valigia di Caterina (Caterina’s Suitcase) project, promoted by the department for the communities and families of Vicenza, which aims to gather economic, human and professional resources for women who have escaped the cycle of violence.

There were many different works and exhibitions on display over the course of the event. The “Connecting People” installation by DAMMS represented the entrance door: a work of threads, webs and faces that evoked the relationships formed at events like the trade show. Other highlights included the exhibition of patchwork creations submitted for the 2016 Contest of the European Patchwork Meeting (Hall 7), the travel journal exhibition curated by Valeria Bertesina (Hall 1) and the 3D crocheted reproduction of Picasso’s Guernica, produced by the Associazione Il Filo dell’Arte (Hall 1). The “Mi racconti una storia” Creativity Island presented creations by calligrapher Anna Schettin and an opportunity for visitors to try their hand at beautiful calligraphy.

www.abilmente.org / www.iegexpo.it

FOCUS ON ITALIAN EXHIBITION GROUP SPA Italian Exhibition Group SpA, a company formed from the merger of Rimini Fiera and Fiera di Vicenza, is headed by Lorenzo Cagnoni, with Matteo Marzotto as Executive Vice President and Corrado Facco as Managing Director. IEG, which ended 2016 with preliminary pro-forma revenue of €123m, EBITDA of €22.9m and a consolidated net profit of around €6.6m, is Italy’s second- largest company in the sector in terms of sales volume, with over 60 products – based on annual and biennial figures – in its portfolio (in the following industries: Food & Beverage, Green, Technology, Entertainment, Tourism, Transport, Wellness, Jewellery and Fashion, Lifestyle & Innovation) and 216 events and conferences. The group’s priority is to promote the internationalization of all these sectors and to help them fly the flag for beautiful, well-made products around the world. The group already has a solid base in the international market, with a joint venture in the United Arab Emirates and notable presence in the USA, China, India and South America. IEG is also the leading Italian company in the conference and congress sector. In 2016, IEG, across all its exhibitions and conferences in Rimini and Vicenza, totalled 14,593 exhibitors, reaching almost 2.5 million visitors.

AGENCY CONTACTS

ITALIAN EXHIBITION GROUP SPA INSTITUTIONAL PRESS OFFICE – VICENZA MY PR LAB – Contrà Canove 15, 36100 - Vicenza Filippo Nani - [email protected] - 335 1019390 Alessandro Amato - [email protected] - 392 7480967

ITALIAN EXHIBITION GROUP SPA PR and MEDIA RELATIONS – LIFESTYLE & INNOVATION FiloComunicazione, Milan. Tel. 02 6599155 Gaia Morelli - [email protected] - 339 5462007 Enrica Cremascoli - [email protected] - 328 7360894

ITALIAN EXHIBITION GROUP SPA PRESS CONTACTS Elisabetta Vitali - head of national media & corporate communication [email protected] Patrizia Rovaris - head of international media & corporate communication [email protected]