Another highly successful Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair – increased international interest from both visitors and the media

The recently held Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair continues to strengthen its position as the world’s leading meeting place within Scandinavian design. Many exhibitors are starting to notice signs of an economic recovery and the percentage of visitors and journalists from other countries continued to increase.

This year’s Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair, Stockholmsmässan’s major furniture and lighting trade fair, was a huge success. It’s tempting to add ‘as usual’ because the fair is well-established and is generally considered to be one of the top two furniture fairs in Europe.

In spite of the current recession, both visitor and exhibitor numbers were very close to last year’s. During the industry days, the fair was visited by 31,150 people, which is only slightly below 2012’s figure of 31,793. There were 729 exhibitors this year compared to 747 last year. It’s worth noting that the international contingent continues to increase. There were no fewer than 58 countries represented on the visitor side, with Norway (1,828 people), Finland (1,078 people) and Denmark (751 people) as the largest countries beside Sweden. The percentage of non-Swedish visitors increased by four percent in total.

Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair always attracts many journalists and the 2013 fair was no exception, with 1,138 accredited media representatives. This was another area where increased international interest was noticeable. 327 foreign journalists visited the fair, which was an increase of 11 percent compared to 2012.

“We’re very pleased with this year’s fair. I have great respect for the fact that many of our client companies have been experiencing difficulties and it’s gratifying that so many of them are prioritizing the fair as a sales channel even when times are hard. Needless to say, we’re even more pleased that many of them are already feeling the benefit of taking part in the fair; we’ve been getting plenty of signals about increased belief in the future and a feeling that things are looking up for home furnishings and for companies supplying furniture and lighting for public spaces,” remarks Event Manager Cecilia Nyberg.

One distinct trend is that fair visitors are eager to share their experiences with others, both when planning what they intend to see during their visit and what they actually see at the fair. Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair has about 6,700 Facebook followers, and while the fair was in progress visitors published approximately 2,500 pictures on Instagram and almost as many Twitter and blog posts.

In addition to all the activities at Stockholmsmässan, Stockholm Design Week attracted many visitors to about 60 different events being held around the city. This year’s big news was Glass Elephant, a joint project between Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair and ABB Robotics, where heavy industrial robots encountered an exhibition by young Swedish artists working in glass. All in all, 1,491 people visited the exhibition in the caverns under the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities.

“Design Week is getting more and more established and really makes a valuable contribution to promoting Stockholm as a design centre. The various activities were more evenly distributed throughout the week this year, which was positive for visitors, who got greater opportunities to experience everything that was going on,” says Cecilia Nyberg.

The next Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair will be held on 4-8 February 2014 at Stockholmsmässan.

To find out more, please contact:

Cecilia Nyberg, Event Manager for Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair, tel +46 8 749 43 86, cecilia.nyberg@stockholmsmassan.se

Ida Mlowe, Press Officer, +46 70 789 44 13, ida.mlowe@stockholmsmassan.se