The Italian Exhibition Group (IEG) celebrates the tenth anniversary of the merger between Fiera di Rimini and Fiera di Vicenza on 1 November 2016. What resulted was the establishment of IEG.

The merger initiative was driven by the then president of Fiera di Rimini, Lorenzo Cagnoni, who went on to become the president of the newly formed IEG. Matteo Marzotto, who at the time presided over the Vicenza company, was appointed vice-president.

The then mayor of Rimini, Andrea Gnassi (now a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies), and the mayor of Vicenza, Achille Variati (who later became a Member of the European Parliament), attended the merger ceremony in 2016 where a cake in the form of a jewel, created by master pastry chef Roberto Rinaldini, was cut to symbolically celebrate Rimini and Vicenza’s top two products: pastry, cake and coffee, and jewellery and gold fairs, respectively, Sigep and Vicenzaoro.

That merger placed IEG among the world’s top 20 trade show organisers.

The numbers have reflected a decade of growth: When the two companies merged, the IEG Group had 270 employees, almost all based in Italy, and a turnover of €119m. By the 2025 financial year, production value had reached €266.4m and the workforce had risen to over 800 employees worldwide.

On 19 June 2019, the company achieved its historic listing on what was then Borsa Italiana’s MTA (Mercato Telematico Azionario – Electronic Stock Market) with a price of €3.69. The stock’s value has since quadrupled.

IEG president Maurizio Ermeti said the last ten years had made the group into a major international trade show player, “something we could not have become on our own: an event organiser that competes with the top global players. We now have a new, solid home for the gold and jewellery sector in Vicenza, which will secure the future of that community. And in Rimini, we have a project for extraordinary expansion work that will attract important trade shows from all over the world.”

“Within the European trade show landscape,” added Corrado Peraboni, CEO of IEG, “we are a unique case. Not just a simple merger, but an industrial project capable of transforming distance into value. Over the past ten years, IEG has demonstrated that a multi-site model can grow, innovate and compete on a global scale without losing its deep-rooted connection to the local territory.”

Carlo Costa, currently chief corporate officer at IEG, who was personally involved in the merger, concluded: “The ‘IEG project’, with the participation of its shareholders, and the subsequent integration process have resulted in a growth and professional maturity that has enabled us to embark on decisive initiatives, such as our stock market listing and the international expansion we have pursued in recent years.”

IEG Group is currently focused on the objectives in its 2025–2030 Business Plan, which targets consolidated revenues of between €360m and €365m by the end of the plan period.

In December, to mark the anniversary, IEG will publish a commemorative book chronicling the company’s global evolution between 2016 and 2026. It will be available as an e-book, downloadable free of charge from all the online platforms.