“Today, Marmomacc is the landmark international trade fair for operators in the natural stone value chain,” says Maurizio Danese, president of Veronafiere.
“Thanks to the added value of the Verona marble district, over the years we have created a promotional platform at the service of the global stone trade. This market posts worldwide turnover of more than €23 billion and always sees Italy among the leaders, with exports worth €3.2 billion in 2015."
The 2016 event, the 51st Marmomacc, returns with expanding numbers and several innovations.
The show areas have been expanded to more than 78,000m², thanks to an additional 2,000m² inside the recently expanded and renovated Hall 10. This investment by organisers Veronafiere has made it possible to respond positively to the waiting list of companies keen to attend the show.
Marmomacc 2016 will resume in the wake of huge success at the 50th anniversary show last year, which attracted 1,524 exhibitors (936 international from 55 countries) and 67,000 professional visitors (3% more than in 2014).
“Marmomacc is the trade show that always made internationality one of its strengths,” says Giovanni Mantovani, CEO & Director General of Veronafiere.
“In 2015, foreign buyers travelling from 150 countries accounted for 61% of visitors, an increase of more than 24% over the last three years. This is especially thanks to the format combining b2b, design and training occasions, as well as the events we organize in the United States, Brazil, Egypt and Morocco with the aim of strengthening and promoting the network between companies and professionals in the global natural stone community.”
Promotion of incoming operators from abroad in 2016 once again involves collaboration with ICE-Italian Trade Agency and Confindustria Marmomacchine within the scope of the initiatives associated with the special Made in Italy Promotion Plan, coordinated by the Ministry of Economic Development.
Hall 1 at Marmomacc, for the second year, will be transformed into The Italian Stone Theatre hosting three exhibitions by world-famous designers narrating the interaction between natural stone and technology, while the Forum area will be home to Lectio Magistralis and conventions.
Verona will also see the arrival of selected trade delegations as the protagonists of b2b meetings, technical training events and visits to local companies.
The second edition of the International Stone Summit also finds space: the World Conference dedicated to natural stone attended by the leading international associations in the marble sector.
Marmomacc has always promoted ever broader use of natural stone products applied to design and architecture and the 2016 show proposes three new initiatives moving in this direction.
The event will welcome the Conference Global Trends in Design and Sustainability, organised in collaboration with American magazine Architectural Record, to outline the future for works in natural stone together with major international architecture studios.
This year, Marmomacc also involves Archmarathon, the architecture exhibition bringing together 42 design studios, with the creation of the new Stone Award.
Another new event is the Icon Award, which will identify one of the works on show in Hall 1 as the campaign image for Marmomacc 2017.
Marmomacc & the City will be staged for the fifth year in the streets and courtyards of the historic centre of Verona to display works and installations in natural stone developed by exhibiting companies through a full-scale open-air exhibition highlighting the versatility and beauty of this material.
Lastly, the Best Communicator Award returns with its tenth edition. This Marmomacc award promotes attention and originality dedicated to exhibit design by exhibiting companies.
The Italian Stone Theatre at Marmomacc 2016
The Italian Stone Theatre at Marmomacc is an entire hall dedicated to culture and experimentation with materials and machinery, two of the main sectors of the Italian lithic industry.
Veronafiere says that The Italian Stone Theatre will become a place of cultural projects dedicated to Made in Italy, with innovative initiatives implemented by companies in collaboration with some of the leading international designers and architects.
There will be three major exhibitions.
The Power of Stone- delves into the hidden qualities of materials to reveal, using sophisticated processing equipment and appropriate formal elaboration, utterly surprising and fascinating aspects. This is consequently a free-ranging design survey explaining materials at the heart of Italian stone culture and traditions.
New Marble Generation will involve designers from different trends and experiences to take up the challenge posed by stone materials with the aim of including new formal and technical research into the main design sectors in order to develop everyday products using various kinds of marble. Sophisticated processing systems mean that it now possible to combine stone design with mass production in new and more modern ways than ever before.
50 Years of Living Marble seeks to pay tribute to the best Italian stone design products over the last 50 years. An historical anthology stimulating comparisons between the craftsmanship generation, starting from semi-manual processing in the 1960s through to the times of digital stonemasons and today's mass production.
The area hosting the three exhibitions will also be complemented by other spaces dedicated debate and discussion.
