Consolidation, expansion and international growth, challenges of Fira de Lleida
Board of Trustees meeting of the Foundation to present the new director
Eduard Martín advocates for strengthening the work team, commercial area and communications, and wants to make Fira de Lleida the third trade fair institution in Spain
"Consolidation, expansion and internationalisation" are the strategic axes that will centre the work of the new general director of Fira de Lleida, Eduard Martín, who was presented today to the members of the Board of Trustees of Fundació La Fira de Lleida during a meeting held at the Chamber of Commerce of Lleida. The objectives of the new director include consolidating and improving existing trade shows, bringing new trade fairs to Lleida and achieving the internationalisation of events such as Agrobiotech. Martín appeared this afternoon before the media to present the main lines of his short-term work plan (until the end of the year), which will be complemented later with a strategic long-term plan "basically aimed at the Trade Fair maintaining sustained growth, and with the ultimate objective of turning it into the third trade fair institution in Spain".
The event, chaired by the mayor of Lleida, Fèlix Larrosa, was also attended by the president of the Diputació de Lleida, Joan Talarn, and the president of the Chamber of Commerce of Lleida, Jaume Saltó.
Martín placed special emphasis on the need to ensure that the major trade shows taking place this year, the MOS-Automotive Trade Show and Agrobiotech, "have the same success as last year and can even grow", and regarding the latter he said that "I want to turn it into a major congress, deepening the scientific aspect and achieving the participation of more startups". With regard to how the institution operates, he wants to strengthen the work team, the commercial area and communication and networks management. He is also proposing to improve the operation of the halls, achieving, for example, greater efficiency in processes such as assembly.
Regarding the change of dates for Agrobiotech, which is being moved forward to 27, 28 and 29 October, he commented that this is being done to avoid coinciding with the large number of agricultural trade fairs being held at the end of November and to provide a certain continuity between the MOS trade show, as the two trade fairs have a common origin.
Speaking about the expansion of trade fairs, mayor Fèlix Larrosa advocated for establishing a system of alliances between trade fair institutions in the territory and recalled that he contacted the mayor of Mollerussa, Marc Solsona, to seal collaborations on projects such as Smart Rural, which "is not only an expansion of what is being done in Barcelona but also allows the comarques of Lleida to lead a project that involves creating opportunities and attracting talent". He also defended the importance of hosting congresses and conferences "as the seed of future trade fairs".
Regarding the future relocation of the exhibition centre, he announced that this week the bases for the competition for the drafting of the preliminary project for the new exhibition centre of Fira de Lleida will be published, which in a first phase would include the urban reorganisation of the exhibition centre and the drafting of the Fira Zero project, or "visitor reception hall" (the first to be built), in addition to the provision for the location of the remaining halls.
It should be noted that the new general director of Fira de Lleida was elected by the Assessment Commission following the competition announced by the Board of Trustees at the end of last year. Born in Barcelona in 1965 and resident in Lleida, Martín Lineros is a software engineer and technical engineer in Systems Computing from the Open University of Catalonia, with more than 30 years of work experience in the information technologies and telecommunications sector, and is an expert in technological innovation and in the creation of public-private consortia and in management and leadership in the public sector.