Premium Beauty News - What was your feeling regarding this new edition of Cosmoprof, prior to the opening day?

Aureliana de Sanctis - The 43rd edition of Cosmoprof Bologna was opening obviously under the best favorable auspicious:2254 exhibitors, that is an increase of 0.26% on 2009, including 1325 overseas visitors, 59% of the total.

In terms of stand space, it represented 180,000 m2, an increase of 2% on 2009.

39,516 visitors had preregistered online before the show, compared to 31,600 persons in 2009. This significant increase was obtained by using the Web as a communication media but also through Google planning with 4553 direct purchases.

Premium Beauty News - You obviously suffered of the cessation of flights as of Thursday evening. What was the exact impact on the show?

Aureliana de Sanctis - As of Wednesday, April 14th the skies of northern Europe started closing because of the Icelandic volcano. The impact was particularly noticeable with the arrivals of delegations of international buyers except for the Cosmopack meetings which were planned Thursday morning and which took place at a rate of 88 meetings on a total of 120.

The impact on others was more serious, only 60 meetings out of 120 for the SPA. Hairdressers for the "On Hair" shows arriving from London could not make it to Bologna, while those who were coming from Paris were able to participate after travelling by car, thanks to our intervention.

Nevertheless, because of the hype we did to have selective perfumery settle again in Bologna as well as significant investments in terms of communication, we can say that this edition of Cosmoprof was a success: the number of visitors increased by 4.88% compared to last year with 6,808 more visitors. The number of foreign visitors was of 33,404 out of 146,331 visitors overall.

Aureliana De Sanctis, SoGeCos, at Cosmoprof 2010

Premium Beauty News - Competition between the major international shows of the Beauty business is not weakening. What is your insight for the future concerning your event?

Aureliana de Sanctis - Cosmoprof does not fear competition. Our show has been the # 1 show in the beauty industry for 43 years. Shows organized by competitors are at the same time niches events and finally very local events. They are very much different from Cosmoprof who is acknowledged as being the largest international show in the world and the only one guaranteeing an international platform with its Las Vegas and Hong Kong editions. If there is a different offer, we are remaining in a situation of free competition. It’s up to the exhibitors to decide where they want to invest depending on their business objectives.

Cosmoprof, since its creation in the 60s, followed the development of the beauty sector and has always kept its promises in terms of reliability and quality; all the exhibitors we have met agreed to that. We are grateful to all the exhibitors who in 2010 trusted us and helped us to achieve a prestigious and useful event for the sector. In the future we will continue with the aim that this event remains not only a show but also a place for meeting people, exchanging ideas and sharing experiences. A true multimedia and multisensory platform facilitating the development of the Beauty world.

Premium Beauty News - What do you think of the opening in a few months of a new tradeshow, Intercharm, in Milan?

Aureliana de Sanctis - Competition is the spice of business. We are in a free market and we are working to improve our show either in terms of content, developing our own features, or in terms of spaces. Intercharm is a project that we are observing with appropriate attention, as a local show intending to be the expression of the Italian market.

Premium Beauty News - The centre of gravity of the beauty business is moving more and more towards the Asian area. A situation that can only benefit to Hong Kong tradesow.

Aureliana de Sanctis - Cosmoprof Asia is a well known show playing a leading role in the development of the cosmetics business in Asia including Japan, Australia, Taiwan and Korea. This year, it will be the 15th edition of the show and we noticed that the nature of it is changing: at first an event focusing on the support to foreign brands to help them find a retail system in Asia, it has gradually changed to become a business platform facilitating the creation of new strategic partnerships in technology, production and retail.

Today, Cosmoprof Asia is acknowledged as being the second benchmark in the world: all the players in the beauty industry meet during the first quarter in Bologna, then they go to Hong Kong, with a wide participation of buyers and exhibitors attending the show, especially from France.

Remember that we are present in mainland China with Guangzhou International Beauty Expo, the largest trade show in China, which is getting great results. Given our performances in Asia, we are looking very closely for opportunities in Beijing and Shanghai.

Premium Beauty News - What about your new show in Turkey?

Aureliana de Sanctis - BeautyEurasia in Istanbul is another very important project in a rapidly developing area in terms of cosmetic products consumption.

Cosmoprof and BeautyEurasia will provide a new professional platform to reach professionals and distributors in this area. The area includes countries such as Turkey, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa: a target of 500 million people. Will congregate there people from, the Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan and parts of eastern Russia.