In recent years, the Spanish capital has become a point of attraction for foreign investment, as well as the headquarters of large multinationals, companies and organisations, and is also one of the world's leading business tourism hubs.
Its exceptional range of infrastructure, facilities and hotels, together with its extraordinary cultural, leisure, sporting, commercial and gastronomic offering, create a profile of a contemporary, dynamic city with the capacity to organise large-scale events, making it one of the most attractive cities in Europe and a preferred destination for holding major international events and a leading trade fair capital on the international level.
The Madrid City Council and IFEMA are professional and dedicate their efforts to making Madrid a city that welcomes national and international buyers and a meeting point for business. Within the framework of this strategy, they have been working together to develop a favourable environment of activities to serve national and foreign professionals who travel to Madrid.
IFEMA is one of the strengths of our region and aims to boost the economy and business activity of Madrid, generating wealth in its surroundings and promoting the Madrid brand within our borders and internationally. It has established itself as one of the most experienced trade fair operators, not only due to its successful track record but also due to its dual role as operator and manager of the venue. This experience is also constantly updated, in its vocation to be an international benchmark in the sector and maintain a constant level of excellence.
In 2017, the Madrid Business Forum has collaborated in the active reception of attendees at two international events: Fruit Attraction and Salon Look.
Fruit Attraction is the second most important fruit and vegetable fair in the world, which was held this year in October, with 2 exhibiting companies and 1.500 professional visitors from 60.000 countries, adding value and creating space for international staging, showcasing Madrid as the international capital of the sector during the days in which the fair was held.
In all the participating hotels in Madrid, the initiative was supported with a special fruit and vegetable setting in lobbies and restaurant areas, and points were placed to offer information and guidance to the businesspeople and visitors participating in this fair.
These actions in the city of Madrid allowed the two most emblematic aspects of the city of Madrid to be united into one: business and tourism, and to direct this potential user to tourist services, thereby encouraging future visitors.
The aim was to create a service that was suited to their needs in terms of schedules, free time and tastes, with the idea of offering entertainment elements that were as close as possible to their needs and to channel the tastes and needs of this type of public, in order to ensure that professionals would dedicate their free time to taking advantage of the opportunities offered by our city, thus helping to encourage spending and generate wealth.
The other big event of 2017 was Salón Look, the Comprehensive Image and Aesthetics Fair, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. During its three days of celebration, the professional visitor to Salón Look 2017 had the opportunity to see first-hand the latest launches and novelties presented by brands in the Aesthetics, Hairdressing, Cosmetics, Micro-pigmentation, Make-up and Nails sectors. In addition to all this, the show was once again an important training forum, through various Hairdressing shows and aesthetics congresses and workshops.
In its 2017 edition, Salón Look brought together more than 400 direct exhibitors and exceeded 1.300 brands, continuing the growth trend of its 2016 edition.
This event, a benchmark in Europe, organised various activities during its three days of exhibition, which were a huge success with the public. The Hair Look catwalk, the Aesthetics Congress, World Massage Workshops, Make-up Championships, Nailympion (Nail Olympics), Hair Look Focus, Academy, speaker corners…