All under one roof

An exhibition area of over 343 000 net square feet (approx. 32 000 m2) at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando will host companies from all over the world once more at the renowned US pet product trade show. The show's organisers, the American Pet Products Association (APPA) and the Pet Industry Distributors Association (PIDA) have succeeded in recent years in significantly raising the profile of the Global Pet Expo as a major rendezvous for the international pet supplies sector. 
The proportion of exhibitors and visitors from countries other than the USA has been incremented: 27 per cent of exhibitors and 25 per cent of buyers at the 13th edition of the Global Pet Expo, held this year, were from outside the US, coming from 79 countries. This year's show set many new records with 6 761 qualified buyers, 1 130 exhibitors and 3 437 booths sold. A visit to the Global Pet Expo has now become a must for buyers from all over the world, and this will still be the case even next year, when the next sector highlight, the world-leading Interzoo fair in Nuremberg, follows hot on the heels of the Global Pet Expo a couple of months later.

Companies launching new products can unveil them in the New Products Showcase, where buyers and the media have the opportunity to preview all the latest products hitting the industry in one convenient location. With nearly 1 000 entries submitted, the New Products Showcase 2017 was the largest new products showcase at any pet product industry show in the world. The New Products Showcase "Best in Show" awards, which are presented at the fair, are a coveted accolade.

An interesting way of keeping abreast of the latest developments in the pet supplies sector and technological advances is the Global Pet Expo Academy. Managed by PIDA, the 2017 seminar line-up featured 29 different seminars from 16 expert instructors in the fields of marketing, social media and technology, merchandising, management, personnel and retail operations. The 2017 Global Pet Expo Academy attracted over 1 600 attendees, a 23 per cent increase over 2016.