FYCMA (Malaga Fairs and Congresses’ Centre) is set to be attended by year-end by more than 170,000 people in the 50 or so events it has scheduled for the last quarter, one of the centre’s busiest periods.

Two new convenings on smart mobility and female leadership are part of a schedule that includes twenty or so fairs and exhibitions.

The scientific-technological, medical and economic-corporate areas are the main focus on the congress side, with a dozen major gatherings which will attract around 12,000 delegates, 30 per cent of them being heath sector professionals.

The facility is globalising a product for the first time with the staging in late September of Transfiere Argentina, Foro Iberoamericano de Tecnología e Innovación (Iberoamerican Forum for Technology and Innovation). 

By the end of the year FYCMA (Malaga Fairs and Congresses’ Centre) will host around 50 events and at least 170,000 participants are expected to attend made up of those visiting and attending some of the fairs, exhibitions, congresses, conventions, open days and other acts due to take place at the facility, we were told today by the deputy mayor responsible for the Centre, Mario Cortés, and the general manager, Yolanda de Aguilar. In this regard, Cortés highlighted that this activity will generate an estimated economic impact for Malaga and its metropolitan area of “at least 40 million Euros”, according to criteria determined by the sector through the Spain Convention Bureau and the Spanish Fair Association (AFE). He went on to say that this schedule helps to “sustain the economy” in periods when there is a smaller flow of tourists thanks to the capacity of the events to generate stayovers and spending in the city, something which also results in the creation of employment, around “4,600 direct and indirect jobs” according to sector estimates.

So FYCMA is expecting one of its main peak seasons with the inclusion of two new convenings promoted by the Centre itself, which is the case of S-MOVING, Smart, Autonomous and Unmanned Vehicles Forum, which will hold its first edition on 17 and 18 October, and Talent Woman España, set for 30 November and 1st December. S-MOVING is a forum focused on technological development related with smart mobility, independent and connected by land, sea and aerospace. It is a highly specialised gathering and ground-breaking in Europe, being aligned with Málaga’s positioning as a prominent technological enclave and innovation centre. Talent Woman España, in turn, is a totally innovative project which sets out to generate vocations and the promotion of female talent in the fields of science, technology and the company. With this in mind, for two days leading women in these fields will exchange experiences with students of all ages and educators so that the examples of some will serve to inspire others.

Transfiere Argentina, the first case of globalisation

Both events are part of the scheduling of at least twenty fairs and exhibitions, with both professional gatherings and those aimed at the general public, the case of Celebra Málaga, the 12th Fair of Weddings and Celebrations; the Second-hand Motor Show; the Outlet fair; fifSUR, the Feria de Franquicias y Negocios del Sur (Southern Businesses and Franchises Fair); the fourteenth edition of SIMed, the Mediterranean Real Estate Show – which consolidates its professional side and the dynamism of the promotion sector-; Mi Mascota, the 7th Pet Show; the Nuevo Futuro Flea Market or MIMA which will return with a format and contents which have been totally overhauled in line with the new trends in family leisure.

It is worth mentioning that this latest usage of the Centre as a tool for the specialised management of the organisation of events will reach a milestone in its fifteen years of history when it stages on 27 and 28 September Transfiere Argentina, Foro Iberoamericano de Tecnología e Innovación (Iberoamerican Forum for Technology and Innovation), which Cortés has dubbed an “jump to the international stage”. In line with the model of the major European fair entities, it constitutes the first franchised product of FYCMA. The councillor has insisted on the potential of this formula, having assured us that the facility will keep working to “export those products which are exclusive to FYCMA and which we can replicate in other territories”. The forum will be held in the municipality of Mar del Plata whose leaders have taken as their reference the case of Málaga to put into place an urban development strategy based on the opportunities deriving from the digital economy.

With this in mind, De Aguilar has insisted that FYCMA is managing to position itself as a centre which is “strategically different”, having made a major commitment to the fields of innovation, technology and industrial competitiveness.

Concurrently with the fair activity, a dozen major congresses in the scientific-health and economic-business area will bring together 12,000 delegates of a national and international nature, outperforming the figures for the same period in 2017. In this regard, the people attending international events have increased too, doubling the figure for the last quarter of last year. It is worth mentioning that 30 per cent of these delegates are professionals from the medical-health sector, a profile of great interest to the city’s strategy as an urban destination in view of its greater spending capacity and consumption motivation potential. So, FYCMA will be the site of the 2nd Congress of the Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Board; the 32nd National Congress of the Spanish Society for Non-hospital Paediatrics and Primary Care and the 39th National Congress of the Spanish Society for Endodontics.

International events on technology and digital transformation

Technological development also focuses on some of the most prominent events of this schedule, which is the case of TURITEC 2018, the 12th International Congress for Tourism and ICT; Eurofintech – one of the main European forums on digital transformation applied to the financial sector – the Fiware Global Summit, whose organisers have once again selected FYCMA as the stage for bringing together developers and investors from various countries specialised in open-source software.

There will also be a new edition of Andalucía Management – one of the major gatherings of top managers on the national circuit – and the 10th Seminar Days on Modernisation and Quality in Public Administration (JOMCAL). Furthermore, both the Colegio de Abogados de Málaga (Malaga Lawyers’ Association) and the Asociación de Viviendas Turísticas de Andalucía (Andalusian Tourist Housing Association) have chosen FYCMA as the place to hold their respective congresses.

This buoyant activity coincides with the increased satisfaction expressed by the users of the Centre. In this way, customer care is still the item most highly rated by organisers, exhibitors and the general public who classify said care at 9.24, outperforming last year’s figure. As regards the organisers, more than 96 per cent would recommend another company or entity to stage their event at FYCMA, whilst a similar percentage of participant exhibitors at a fair organised by the Centre have expressed their intention to come back at the next convening.

All the information about the schedule with its dates can be found at the website www.fycma.com.