Danka Selić, Belgrade Fair CEO

Considering the reform efforts that we’ve been applying to all significant aspects of this fair in recent years, last year’s figures were even better than our optimistic expectations, so we believe that we’ll also be satisfied with the effect after this year’s edition, emphasises Belgrade Fair CEO Danka Selić.

Did you succeed in bringing together the most relevant domestic, European and world companies again this year?

We should perhaps remind readers that the epilogue of last year’s fair was 508 exhibitors from 38 countries, covering almost 29,000 square metres of exhibition space, which – with 87,000 visitors, including tens of thousands with business legitimation – represents the right answer to this question.

We are also building our optimism based on the fact that some of the most reputable brands in this industry, which have not previously been present at the fair, have become very interested in presenting themselves to the public and the market here. Thus, for example, this year we will witness and host the local premieres of two prestigious Italian brands – ColombiniCase and Cappellinia. North Macedonia’s Fagus is coming again, as are NUNC and Prostoria from Croatia, while there will also be Denmark’s Muuto, Switzerland’s WOAK, Kraljevo-based GIR, Extraform from Senta, Gard from Valjevo, Simpo from Vranje, Trstenik’s Rast, Belgrade’s Dsignedby studio, Sarajevo’s Gazzda and hundreds more local and foreign exhibitors whose participation in this event is implied.

The Belgrade Furniture Fair underwent a significant redesign recently and strides in two directions – in a conceptual sense, with the programme-based highlighting of design-orientated companies, and on the business front with the strengthening of business visits through the introduction of the Hosted Buyers programme?

Visitors have already had the opportunity to see this new conceptual approach, in the scope of which essential innovative and original design solutions are motivated in various ways, including throughout designer-orientated projects and companies. We do this with the best intention of keeping pace with key global trends and leading world industries in this field, but in parallel with those “classical” manufacturers and designers, both foreign and domestic.

Participating in the Design Talks programme will be Francesca de Ponti, Marco Souse Santos, Gorazd Malačić, Branko Nikolić, Tanja Jović et al.

Participating in the Design Talks programme will be Francesca de Ponti, Marco Souse Santos, Gorazd Malačić, Branko Nikolić, Tanja Jović et al.

Moreover, paying additional attention to business, “personalised” business visitors, large and influential professional buyers, under the auspices of the so-called Hosted Buyer programme, proved to be a successful business endeavour, as it involves people who often crucially fuse markets and create demand on the international front.

What kind of interest prevails in the Young Designers Exhibition and the Design Talks programme? Will the most eminent participants from all over Europe again gather for them?

The Design Talks programme is actually the most visited programme intended for the exchange of professional experiences among designers and architects, because speakers and participants often include top international names in these fields. Among them this year will be experts such as Francesca de Ponti, Marco Souse Santos, Gorazd Malačić, Branko Nikolić, Tanja Jović et al. As such, the audience will be able to find out how movements are created in the furniture industry, the systems that determine the functioning of the industry, which trends are current and what the situation is like on the market. The International Exhibition of Young Designers is just the creative whipped cream on top of that designers’ cake.

Is there something that we mustn’t overlook; something brand new and different?

In short – yes; and in short – that’s absolutely everything that can and should be seen at this fair.