Events

Footwear for Cersaie | by Maria Teresa Rubbiani

Habitués of Cersaie are well aware of the importance of choosing comfortable footwear. Visitors begin to think about what shoes they will wear well in advance of the show, which this year will be held from 9 to 13 November.

The choice is in fact far from simple as it involves reconciling two seemingly contradictory requirements: shoes that are comfortable and at the same time are at least respectable, if not necessarily the height of elegance.

The aesthetic considerations reflect the nature of Cersaie as a show devoted to beauty and Italian-made products, a place where one should come properly and, if possible, fashionably attired with well-chosen colour combinations. After all, the visitors and exhibitors at Cersaie are interior design and architecture professionals!

The choice of comfortable footwear is obviously dictated by the sheer size of the show and the fact that buyers, professionals and designers want to make the most of the time they spend at an exhibition that remains an international benchmark in the interior design sector. They want to be able to fully appreciate the beauty of all the products on display and get up to date with the latest home design products.

With this in mind, visitors normally buy the shoes they intend to wear to Cersaie several months in advance so that they have time to adapt to their feet but without becoming worn out. The golden rule is never to wear new shoes to Cersaie!

Another factor to bear in mind is that temperatures may vary enormously in late September as summer gives way to autumn, while the ongoing process of climate change plays further havoc with weather patterns. So a choice of suitable footwear also means keeping an eye on the weather forecasts!

But the big news this year is that the show’s exhibition floor is expanding by an extra 20,000 square metres in response to growing demand for space from exhibitors, which means that visitors will have to devote more attention than ever to their choice of footwear!

With the newly built hall 37, the largest covered space in the entire exhibition centre, due to be inaugurated at Cersaie 2020, the space available at the show will reach a total of 180,000 square metres. The opening of this new hall marks the second important step in the exhibition centre redevelopment project following the opening of halls 28, 29 and 30 at Cersaie 2018, while further work on the halls and common areas is due to be completed in 2024.

This will bring two major new changes. First, the exhibition spaces will be reorganised so that areas devoted to the same product categories are located closer together, thereby improving the functionality of the exhibition centre as a whole.

Secondly, there will be a completely new 10,000 square metre thematic area in Hall 18 called Contract Hall devoted specially to sectors that have not previously exhibited at Cersaie.

Ceramic products have developed dramatically in recent years and are now used in many different areas of application that go well beyond their traditional uses as residential floor and wall coverings.

Contract Hall is designed to reflect these new applications and will be devoted to new ceramic materials, including large-size tiles and slabs in an enormous range of thicknesses suitable for use in sectors such as kitchen furniture and door and window frames.

With this in mind, Hall 18 will host companies from home and interior design sectors that were not previously present at the show. The Kitchens, fireplaces and ceramic furniture area will showcase solutions that use ceramics in combination with other materials. The Interior and exterior finishings space will be devoted to staircases, doors and wood panelling, along with door and window frames, design accessories, curtains and finishings in general. The Wellness Systems section in Hall 18 will showcase spas, saunas and beauty spaces, while traditional bathroom furnishing products will continue to be exhibited in the five dedicated halls. The Outdoor area will host producers of gazebos, patios and outdoor furniture in well-designed, eye-catching spaces. A large area will be set aside for Lighting and Home Automation, an important aspect of modern buildings in terms of living comfort, and the Design section will accommodate software houses and the IT tools needed to create buildings and living spaces. This expansion project is being carried out as a partnership between the organisers of Cersaie and BolognaFiere and further consolidates the excellent relationship between the two players.

While Contract Hall is the space where visitors to Cersaie will have a chance to meet selected exhibitors from other home design sectors after exploring the areas devoted to ceramic tiles and bathroom furnishings, it will also host the Archincont(r)act area where a number of well-known architectural firms will present their latest projects to real estate professionals.

This will make it the ideal meeting venue for players in the world of large scale projects and their clients.

While Cersaie remains a unique opportunity for industry professionals to keep abreast of the latest developments while admiring the wide range of high-level ceramic products on display and exploring the new product categories of home design and contract furnishing, in 2020 the show will once again offer a packed programme of conferences and seminars devoted to architecture, home design and technology. The programme of events is still being finalised and updates will be published on the Cersaie website.

So visitors to Cersaie 2020 be warned: this year’s show will be bigger than ever before and its motto will be “Put on your shoes and start walking”.

February 2020