AFPOP, THE Association of Foreign Residents and Visitors in Portugal, has awarded the contract to organise the Better Living in Portugal exhibition (BLiP) for the next three years to local exhibitions company Exiberia.
The contract went to tender in the autumn of last year and Exiberia’s win was due to the success of the exhibitions it had organised in recent years, said Michael Reeve, CEO of AFPOP.
He added that growing in quality rather than in size is the biggest challenge facing the BLiP organisers over the contract period, which runs from 2008 to 2010.
Michael Reeve said that “the mix of subjects is what explains the success of this event” and therefore maintaining and improving the quality for visitors and exhibitors “is a priority”.
Exiberia’s Commercial Director Sheena Rawcliffe, who is also managing Director of The Resident, said the company is “very pleased to have been awarded the contract for a further three years”.
She added that Exiberia was already working with AFPOP to further develop the exhibition, bearing in mind the constraints of space available at any venue in the region. “Our aim was, and continues to be, to produce the best possible exhibition for exhibitors and visitors alike.”
The new contract is to be signed this month when AFPOP’s president, Christopher Stephen, returns from a business trip to Brussels.
This year the biggest business exhibition in the Algarve involving the foreign community will be advertised in national newspapers and in specialist magazines.
The Algarve, the south of Spain and Gibraltar were the most represented regions at last year’s event.
The location of the 2008 exhibition, on October 11 and 12, is to remain at Expoarade in Portimão as “we were very happy with the logistics of that facility”, said Michael Reeve.
Cecília Pires
