Macfrut Digital, challenge won

A total of 32,212 participants in the three-day event, which was attended by 18,164 individual professionals, 49% of visitors were from abroad, 208,000 pages were viewed, and most of the 11 Technical Forums were overbooked (the limit was 300 participants). The numbers of Macfrut Digital, the first virtual trade fair for the fresh produce industry, hosted by an industry-leading global platform (Natlive), are remarkable. As announced during the presentation phase, 530 units were sold with 400 exhibitors in total, 40% of whom were from abroad.

‘We have achieved an outstanding result,’ says Renzo Piraccini, President of Macfrut. ‘I would like to thank all the exhibitors who supported this wonderful experience and shared it with us. Macfrut Digital is a highly innovative project, visionary in some respects: all participants had the opportunity to fully appreciate its huge potential with regard to both business and communication aspects.’

However, a number of issues occurred, particularly on the morning of the first day, mainly regarding connection since users had browsing protection enabled on their operating system or connection network, or were not using suitable devices. Most issues were dealt with by Tuesday, 8 September afternoon by allowing B2B meetings to be accessed from mobile devices as well.

Piraccini continues: ‘It is now clear that we have pioneered a project with tremendous potential. The future lies in this direction and the Italian fruit and vegetable sector must necessarily keep pace with the rapidly changing times, especially at a time such as this, when travel is restricted. Our new adventure was very well received. We will decide the future of the project together with sector professionals. The platform will remain open until the end of September so that visitors can watch the on-demand Forums and video content, a valuable asset now available to the industry. We look forward to seeing you at Macfrut on 4-6 May 2021 in Rimini!’. 

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