Taking a Look Back at Vitafoods Europe

This year’s Vitafoods Europe was a record-breaking event, celebrating its 20^th year and moving into a new space at the Palexpo center in Geneva, Switzerland. Total attendance hit 17,666—a 13 percent increase over the 2015 event—and 900 exhibitors filled the larger expo halls, along with new and original content and features for greater engagement.

Vitafoods Europe refined its focus this year, honing in on four distinct sectors: ingredients and raw materials, finished products, contract manufacturing and private label, and services and equipment. Chris Lee, Vitafoods portfolio director, said: “Vitafoods Europe 2016 was our 20th anniversary and it was a truly special international event. We’re delighted at the numbers of visitors we welcomed through Palexpo’s doors and also very pleased that they found the event a stimulating and rewarding environment in which to meet and do business. This year’s Vitafoods Europe broke all records in terms of visitor and exhibitor numbers, and the Vitafoods Conference was once again a major success."

Both exhibitors and attendees were enthusiastic about the show. Sofia Hoffmann De Mendonça, business development manager at Allmicroalgae, commented, “Vitafoods Europe is key for me to attend because it gives you a good overview of the market trends and it’s a great place to meet key suppliers and prospects, not only from Europe but also from Asia and Australia."

And Golan Raz, senior vice president of the Health Nutrition Division at Lycored (the official Heart Health Sponsor of Vitafoods Europe), said: “I’ve been participating in Vitafoods for many years and it’s impressive to see how the show grows. I think the set-up this year was excellent, very easy to navigate. I heard that also from visitors. At the end of the day, that’s the most important."

There were a variety of visitor attractions designed to showcase how companies can address today’s business challenges and support interaction among industry members. The Vitafoods Centre Stage, for example, showcased speakers on topics ranging from sports nutrition to regulatory compliance, and hosted the Vitafoods Venture Den, a new competition developed in cooperation with Nutrition Capital Network. Other new attractions included the Sports Nutrition Zone, the Optimal Health Testing Centre, the Springboard Pavilion and the Vitafoods LaunchPad. Among the returning—and popular—features were the Tasting Bar and the Omega-3 Resource Centre, developed in association with the Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega-3s (GOED). Content was not solely found in the expo hall. In fact, the Vitafoods Europe Conference boasted a strong line-up of speakers from the worlds of academia, market research and industry.

If you’d like to take a closer look at this year’s Vitafoods Europe event, click the link to view the 2016 Vitafoods Europe Image Gallery, posted on our sister website, Vitafoods Insights. You’ll also find conference reports on the four focus sectors of Vitafoods Europe, and perspectives from industry leaders across Europe. You can even sign up to receive notifications when Vitafoods Insights posts new post-conference reports that will showcase learnings from this year’s Vitafoods Europe Conference—all for free.

Vitafoods Europe returns to Palexpo next year from 9-11 May 2017. For more information, visit vitafoods.eu.com.