Today’s date, 15th April 2025, marks 100 years since UFI, the ‘Global Association of the Exhibition Industry’, was founded. Since then, UFI has become the association for the exhibitions industry worldwide. There are few places on the globe that UFI does not represent.
Chris Skeith OBE, CEO and managing director at UFI, commented on social media that ‘it’s an honour and privilege to lead this incredible organisation in it’s centennial year’.
In its early days in the 1920s and 1930s, UFI’s aims was to unite and collaborate international trade fairs to boost the international economy after World War I. UFI has always been ‘a strictly non-political organisation’ which helped it facilitate trade between the western and eastern blocs during the Cold War.
UFI today has its headquarters in Paris and champions and promotes trade and business from around the world. It plays an integral role in the exhibitions industry today, and has done for the last century. UFI has survived wars, economic crises and global turmoil. With this resilience, it would be unsurprising to see UFI last another 100 years – but times now are more challenging than ever.
