1,000 participants from 44 countries, 54 exhibitors from 8 countries, and more than 2,600 video meetings.

This is how to summarize the business meetings of the furniture and interior design industry Meble Polska Special Edition, which took place online from 24 to 28 May 2021. The event organized by Grupa MTP enabled manufacturers and buyers from all over the world to meet and conduct business negotiations in a safe environment without any risks of traveling.

“We focused our promotional campaign on completely new markets. We wanted to reach furniture buyers who had not had a chance to visit the Poznań furniture fair before. We assumed that online meetings were a good opportunity for our exhibitors to find brand new customers and expand their existing sales markets,”  says Józef Szyszka, Director of MEBLE POLSKA Special Edition.

It was a multinational event in terms of the buyers who took part in the event. Foreign participants accounted for as much as 55 percent. The meetings were attended by representatives of companies from 44 countries. “We are particularly glad about the presence of trade representatives from such distant and important markets for the development of Polish furniture exports as Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Canada, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Mexico, Mongolia, the United States, Tunisia, Turkey or the United Arab Emirates,” adds Józef Szyszka.

The digital Special Edition featured 54 companies from Poland, Belarus, Denmark, Germany, Romania, the United States, Turkey, and Ukraine. Apart from furniture manufacturers, other companies that participated in the event as exhibitors included those offering home furnishings, lighting, and fabrics. Among the participants, there were representatives of such renowned furniture brands as Ashley, Wayfair, or XXXLutz.

Lectures held at the virtual stage

Online business meetings of representatives of the furniture and interior design industry were supported by numerous events broadcast at a virtual stage of the event. Over four days, it featured nearly 40 speakers and panelists from Poland and abroad. Every day lectures and discussions focused on a different topic.

On the first day, the events were addressed exclusively to Polish retailers. A series of lectures by Jerzy Osika provided an opportunity to learn, among other things, how the new reality has affected changes in consumers’ lifestyles and their needs related to the purchase of furniture and other home furnishings, and how to adjust the range of products offered by a store to the new expectations of customers.

On the second day, experts looked at the impact of the pandemic on the Polish furniture market. The third day was intended primarily for exporters and companies dreaming of new foreign markets.

Export issues were also the main point on the agenda on the fourth day. That day was dominated by the experts of the PAIH Polish Investment and Trade Agency, who presented prospective export markets (American, Arabian, European, Canadian, and Colombian) as well as shared the ABC of export, i.e. information on how to take the first steps in export.

Negotiations open till 27 June

VIP visitors and exhibitors can still view the profiles of participants and contact each other via chat messages for another month. Both groups can also access the lectures recorded during the event at the virtual stage.

Let’s meet live

There is a date reserved in the calendar of Grupa MTP for the Autumn Furniture Contracting Exhibition MEBLE JESIEŃ. The event is to be held in the classic formula in exhibition halls from 31 August to 3 September 2021.

Obviously, it will be held under a sanitary regime in accordance with the recommendations of the Chief Sanitary Inspector. “We want to meet the needs of the companies that wanted to showcase their current range of products to buyers during the traditional fair, which could not be organized in the first half of the year due to the epidemic,” explains Józef Szyszka.