To exhibitors, buyers, operators, journalists and suppliers...
I would like to send a message of support and solidarity to all of you at this time of great difficulty in running our businesses.
The Covid-19 health emergency and limited international movement prevents us from seeing each other and meeting up in June in Riva del Garda for the regular summer editions of Expo Riva Schuh and Gardabags.
However, we want to continue our work, providing contact between producers and buyers and we will do just that, in new ways, aiming to respond to the global market needs of the footwear and leather goods industry, which has suffered months of being at a standstill, right in the first sales season of the year.
In recent weeks, our team has asked for your opinion regarding the possibility of changing the dates of the event, with the aim of finding a strategic date for the development of your businesses at such an unprecedented and difficult time.
With the greatest respect for your production and marketing needs, we have decided to wait a little longer before fixing definite dates, that may vary from those currently cited, because the Italian Government has yet to establish the timing for the re-opening of all businesses and specifically for collective events.
The Health Authority and national and local institutions are preparing health and behavioural protocols that will enable us to define when and how we can all be together again at the exhibition.
Over the next months we will get back to doing what we have always done, just in different ways. The requirement for social distancing, the use of protective gear and venue sanitisation processes will change the way we carry out every aspect of our daily personal and professional lives in order to safeguard our health.
You will appreciate that in such uncertain times, announcements regarding date changes can only be an estimate and would be premature at the moment, because only a reassuring international health framework and the reopening of borders and air travel will make it possible for the international footwear and leather goods community to meet.
Now that the effects of social distancing and the various measures in place are starting to bring the first, comforting results, Italy is getting ready to face phase 2, a period in which we will be able to travel again, meet and do business, in the knowledge that the footwear sector has an impact of extraordinary importance for the economy of each of the countries that you represent.
With warm regards and looking forward to seeing you soon,
Roberto Pellegrini and Alessandra Albarelli
Chairman and General Manager
Riva del Garda Fierecongressi
Organisers of Expo Riva Schuh and Gardabags
