The annual event, which was last held In Bologna 1-4 of April, 2005, has become one of the leading beauty events in the world. In 2004, attendance increased 10 per cent on the previous event, to reach 132,267 professionals, coming from 40 different countries. For the 2005 event, attendance was said to have increased by 4 per cent to reach 137,247 from 47 countries.
But the competition is ever-looming and no one can afford to rest on their laurels in this sector. This year, the 39th successive event, the organisers SoGeCos are banking on foreign visitors to again push up numbers.
Accordingly, SoGeCos have already taken bookings from 49 countries, with first-time new arrivals including representation from Slovenia, Iceland and Hungary. The representations from these newcomers will all be showcasing products that are representative of their countries.
This year, helped along by the newcomers, the organizers say that preliminary bookings indicate figures will exceed the previous event, despite the fact that competition in this arena has continued to mount in recent years.
That competition resulted in the announcement that the Personal Care Ingredients Europe show, due to take place in Paris next March, was cancelled back in October due to a lack of support.
PCIE has been battling it out with the growing In-Cosmetics show over the past few years. In-Cosmetics was due to take place in Barcelona at the beginning of April, just one week after the PCIE exhibition and at the same time as the Cosmoprof show.
Obviously with one of those shows out of the way, some of the heat is off, but still the In-Cosmetics and Cosmoprof shows will be battling out for companies to exhibit and the right professionals to attend.
SoGeCos is hoping that Cosmoprof's country pavilions will repeat the success of recent events, while also stressing the international angle that aims to give the show its edge.
Once again, France will have the biggest exhibition area for its country pavilion, with 1,900 square metres, but reflecting the increasing importance of Amazonian-derived natural ingredients, the Brazil pavilion will total 500 square metres, representing a significant increase over the previous event.
Meanwhile a complete newcomer to the country pavilion will be Japan, which will be showcasing a selection of its renowned top quality personal care products.
Registration for Cosmoprof is available on-line to both companies wishing to exhibit and visitors.