Rimini Fiera

Background Rimini's exhibitional history traces back to the Hotel Fair, which was first hosted in 1949 in the halls of the city's Grand Hotel. The first exhibition at the new site was the 18th edition of an international exhibition on production and technology in hotel tourism. As well as hosting the Rimini Meeting, the Via Monte Titano centre was used by political party congresses, including the last congress of the Italian Communist Party in 1991. Prime Minister Bettino Craxi was reconfirmed as Secretary of the Italian Socialist Party at the party's 1987 congress in Rimini, weeks before the fall of his government. It was also at the Fiera that in March 1995, future Prime Minister Romano Prodi, as president of a consultancy group, produced a report identifying areas for development in Rimini's tourism economy and infrastructure. Construction and early years The first stone of the new Fiera was laid on 3 June 1999, The Fiera was constructed at a cost of 280 billion lire, and designed by Volkwin Marg The former centre on Via Monte Titano was demolished to make way for the Rimini Palacongressi, a conference space which was also designed by GMP and opened in 2011. In 2000, Rimini Fiera SpA was created to own the complex. The Province of Rimini, the municipal council and the Chamber of Commerce each owned 26.44% of Rimini Fiera SpA, while the regional government owned 5.8%. The remaining 14.88% was owned by private shareholders. Lorenzo Cagnoni, was appointed President of Rimini Fiera SpA in 2002; That year, it recorded 7,531 exhibitors and 1,848,785 visitors. Merger with Vicenza, expansion and privatisation In May 2016, Rimini Fiera signed a letter of intent with Vicenza Fiera to merge the "distinct but complementary" management of their exhibition centres, with a business focus on tourism, renewables, wellness and food. The merger was approved by the Boards of Directors of the respective companies in July 2016, with Cagnoni to preside over the new company. 81% of the new company would be owned by the shareholders of Rimini Fiera, and the remaining 19% by the shareholders of Vicenza Fiera. From 2016 to 2018, the pavilions were expanded to accommodate a further of exhibition space. The expansion cost . In August 2018, the municipal council approved the long-anticipated partial privatisation of the Fiera. The provincial council had previously approved the privatisation in June 2015, with a view to list it on the Borsa Italiana. As part of the privatisation, the share of IEG's public ownership would reduce from 65% to between 33% and 41%. the company was listed on Euronext Milan, a regulated market of the Borsa Italiana. Shares launched at , and subsequently reached above , before falling to by July 2022. The Legislative Assembly of Emilia-Romagna endorsed its candidacy alongside those of Bologna and Bertinoro. In June 2022, the Fiera hosted the 2022 European Trampoline Championships. Following Cagnoni's death in September 2023, Maurizio Ermeti, previously a director and hotel entrepreneur, was appointed as the President of the IEG's board of directors. In January 2024, the Dome-South Hall was dedicated to Cagnoni. Future expansion In 2020, the municipal government granted planning permission for additional parking spaces and a new detached eastern pavilion, which would cover . The proposal was superseded by a five-year plan launched in July 2022, which included of investment and a new western pavilion to be completed by 2027. The western pavilion would add of exhibition space, and accompany an additional of parking space. The announcement indefinitely shelved plans for the eastern pavilion, which would have yielded a similar surface area for a projected . In January 2024, IEG announced that would be invested in Rimini Fiera's expansion over the next four years, including two temporary pavilions, new car parks, and an automated car parking fee collection system. There is a "well-known hypothesis" that Rimini Fiera could merge with the Fiera di Bologna. Speaking in July 2022, Cagnoni said that IEG would not object, though the exhibition centres have different specialisms. At the time, it was envisaged that Bologna could merge with Rimini as an alternative to Rimini Fiera's privatisation. In 2016, the fairs of Bologna, Rimini and Parma signed a letter of intent "with the aim of achieving functional or corporate integration". The merger of IEG and Bologna Fiera would form the largest trade fair group in Italy and the third-largest in Europe. In August 2023, it was reported that Bologna Fiera was seeking alliances with Fiera Milano rather than Rimini Fiera. In July 2023, Rimini's mayor, Jamil Sadegholvaad, voiced his support for IEG entering the management of Federico Fellini International Airport. ==Complex==

According to its architect, Volkwin Marg, Rimini Fiera was designed to evoke the "genius loci" of Emilia-Romagna, expressed in the Fiera's syntax of symmetry, speculiarity, and axial alignment. The complex is organised into two rows of eight pavilions facing north-south. The pavilions are pillarless, and can be aggregated or separated according to the needs of events. A ring road and central distribution spine allow for vehicles to set up and dismantle pavilions while other parts of the Fiera are still in use. The entire complex is organised on one level. The complex also includes a detached railway station from the southern entrance. Rimini Fiera has 11,000 parking spaces, ==Meetings and conventions==

Rimini Fiera is the venue of the Rimini Meeting, a cultural-religious festival which has been organised in Rimini by the Communion and Liberation lay Catholic movement since 1980. The Rimini Meeting takes places annually in the last week of August, Mario Draghi, and Tony Blair. In 2022, the Rimini Meeting attracted 80,000 visitors, with a further 720,000 online attendees. (left) at Ecomondo 2022 Among the largest recurring convention at the Fiera is Sigep, a confectionary trade fair, which attracted 178,500 visitors in 2023. Other recurring conventions include: • Beer&Food Attraction, showcasing beer and street food; • Ecomondo, showcasing green technologies for energy, resource extraction, and sustainable development; • Enada Primavera, an exposition for gaming arcades; • the Ibe Intermobility and Bus Expo, previously stylised as the International Bus Expo; • Expodental Meeting, the conference of the Italian dentistry union; • Mir Tech, dedicated to the audiovisual and production technology supply chain; and • RiminiWellness, a health and wellbeing convention. When interests intersect, fairs are sometimes held simultaneously. For example, the recurring TTG and Sia Guest fairs, later also joined by the Sun Beach&Outdoor Style fair, marry the conventions on tourism blogging and hospitality, with over 60,000 attendees. In 2015, 5,000 attendees attended the joint conventions of the Flora Trade Show on nursery gardening and landscaping and MacFrut, a recurring fruit and vegetable trade fair which attracted almost 50,000 visitors in 2023. Past conventions have included Sapore, an Italian catering and culinary convention held in 2012; Technodomus, a carpentry convention in 2012; RHEX, showcasing the hotel, hospitality, catering and entertainment industries in 2013; Airet, exhibiting Italy's aeronautical supply chains in 2013; a World of Coffee fair in 2014; and Music Inside Rimini, showcasing music technologies in 2017. In June 2023, 60,000 attendees were expected at the eleventh edition of the digital innovation We Make Future conference, with guest speakers including Tim Berners-Lee, Manuel Castells, and Jerry Kaplan. As well as trade fairs, the Fiera has hosted sporting events, such as the Italian Dance and Sportdance Championships, the Rhythm'n'Basket competition in 2014, the PosteMobile Final Eight 2017 basketball competition, On New Year's Eve 2022, the Fiera hosted Galactica NYE, an electronic music festival. In May 2023, the European Major Exhibition Centers Association, a major association of European convention centres, met for their general assembly at the Fiera. == Transport connections ==

Railway station Rimini Fiera railway station (Italian: ), sometimes stylised as RiminiFiera, is served by Trenitalia trains on the Bologna–Ancona railway. The station entrance is from the main entrance of the exhibition centre. During exhibitions, subsidised by the Fiera, up to 40 local, regional and long-distance trains call at the station per day, including high-speed Frecciarossa trains. The railway station was built at the same time as the complex, at a cost to Rimini Fiera SpA. At the time, it was the only modern railway station whose construction was not financed by the state-owned Rete Ferroviaria Italiana. The station opened on 17 January 2004. Its facilities include automatic ticket machines and a lift to ground level for wheelchair users. An agreement between IEG and Trenitalia often allows exhibition-visitors to redeem discounted train tickets to Rimini Fiera. More trains call at Rimini railway station, which is the next station southbound and connected to the Fiera by local buses. The closest airport is Federico Fellini International Airport, in Rimini's Miramare suburb, which also serves San Marino. northern extension is expected to commence in 2026, and is due to be completed in 2028. From the Fiera, the extension will provide a 9-minute connection to the railway station, and trolleybuses will take 31 minutes to reach Riccione. The Fiera is equidistant to the existing Rimini Nord and Rimini Sud junctions of the tolled A14 motorway, which overpasses the state road west of the Fiera's southern entrance, on the road to Santa Giustina. Exhibitions at Rimini Fiera are known to cause traffic bottlenecks on arterial roads leading to the complex. The Fiera sits near the intersection of the SS9 and state roads, corresponding to the ancient Roman Via Aemilia and Via Popilia. The municipal council supports a new exit to the A14 that would connect with the Fiera; the junction is included in the regional mobility development plan. In January 2024, IEG announced that it would soon unveil a proposal for a new exit. ==References==