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NEWS
Kortrijk: Design Nation to replace Biennale Interieur
Trade fair organiser Kortrijk Xpo has developed Design Nation as a replacement fair for the Bi- ennale Interieur. Instead of ten days as before, the new fair will only be held for two days, on 19-20 October 2023, to afford a more efficient ex- perience for exhibitors. The exhibited product
categories include furniture, beds, lighting, floor coverings, rugs and textiles.
Design Nation is conceived as a fair aimed at traders and contractors in these industries and segments.
Interview with EUCA: Focus on Domotex
The European Carpet Importers Association EUCA represents importers of oriental carpets into Europe. Carpet Home spoke to Dr Ali Ipektchi (President EUCA) and Jens-Peter Höge (2nd Chair- man) about Domotex 2023 from the Association’s point of view.
Carpet Home: What is your assessment of Domotex 2023?
Jens Peter Höge: We thought it was wonderful that a trade fair finally took place again after such a long break. People got to talk to each other and show and touch goods in person.
Dr Ali Ipektchi: The feedback from exhibitors and visi- tors was consistently positive, but many also found it a pity that our industry was not represented in the form and on the scale it should have been. Of course, there are also individual, quite understandable economic rea- sons for this. All in all, it was a weaker fair due to the market situation, but certainly a good one for the partici- pating companies.
Carpet Home: What participation do you expect from your industry at Domotex 2024 ?
Dr. Ali Ipektchi: We are very much looking forward to Domotex 2024, the Association is making a clear recom- mendation to attend. Of course, the decision to para- ticipate is up to each individual company, but based on the positive response among customers and colleagues, we believe that our industry will be more strongly rep- resented.
Jens Peter Höge: Domotex Hannover has a history and is still the world‘s leading trade fair for hand-knotted car- pets. For 2024, we expect a stronger event in every re- spect.
Dr. Ali Ipektchi, Jens-Peter Höge
Carpet Home: What is your reaction?
Jens Peter Höge: We at the EUCA think it is right to focus on one location – and that is Hannover. Having trade fairs going on at the same time or in parallel in Germany or abroad which have a similar concept, we find that prob- lematic because there is a risk of redundancy..
Dr. Ali Ipektchi: Fragmentation in of the trade fair land- scape makes no sense from our point of view. Concen- trating the industry at one time at one location is funda- mentally in the interest of of visitors, and thus also of the exhibitors and the market. For us, Domotex remains the flagship trade show for our industry.
PHOTO: EUCA
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