PARIS -- The 25th annual SIAL show is scheduled for Oct. 21-25, 2012, at the Paris-Nord Exhibition Center in Paris. This year’s show will bring together 6,000 exhibitors from 100 countries on SIAL’s massive exhibition space that covers more than 2 million square feet, organized into 19 show sectors and eight halls.
SIAL is an increasingly global exhibition: International visitors make up 62% of the 136,000 attendees, representing approximately 200 countries. France still ranks as the top visitor country while Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, U.K., Spain, Germany, the United States, Canada and Russia follow, respectively, in number of visitors represented at the show.
With innovation being a vital element of SIAL, the SIAL Innovation Awards and the SIAL d’Or Awards will once again take center stage. These two product competitions will highlight the abundant food and beverage innovations offered by manufacturers across the globe. SIAL Innovation will receive 1,000 exhibitor product entries and, from those, 400 will be selected for the contest and displayed in the special Innovation Area at SIAL. From that selection, 15 products will be awarded prizes.
This year, Intermarche, a leading independent grocery chain in France, will select its own 10 to 15 products from the SIAL Innovation participants to be marketed in more than 1,000 Intermarche stores across France. This in-store operation will coincide with SIAL so that winning exhibitors will see their products on Intermarche shelves Oct. 23-27.
Meanwhile, the SIAL d’Or competition honors products that have been commercial successes in the 30 national markets represented in the contest. Category and country winners are awarded, as well as one Global SIAL d’Or grand prize that will be announced during the show.
La Cuisine by SIAL will return in 2012 and become the central reception area for foodservice professionals with a cooking demonstration area, a showroom featuring gourmet and foodservice products and a bookstore. For the first time, La Cuisine by SIAL will feature a special VIP restaurant where renowned chefs will prepare exhibitors’ products in an open kitchen.
SIAL only admits food industry professionals and is exclusively devoted to food and beverage products, serving the needs of all market segments including large-scale distribution, import-export, wholesale distribution, specialty retail, foodservice and food manufacturing.
Produced by Paris-based Comexposium, the No.1 trade show organizer in France, SIAL is the largest of the five SIAL food and beverage exhibitions organized in the world on five different continents. For more information, visit www.sialparis.com.
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