For the first time since 1975, UFI´s annual congress took place in Latin America. Latin America is a rapidly developing market which shows rich opportunities for the exhibition business” says Paul Woodward, UFI Managing Director. “Our business is changing and some markets have special characteristics which we must acknowledge in our business development initiatives.” For this reason UFI had chosen the topic “Fit to compete” for this year´s UFI Congress. From October 29 to November 1, a variety of aspects related to competitive advantage – today and in the future, were discussed by the Congress participants. Latin America has shown surprising signs of change in the last two decades. When comparing some of the most important economic indicators from 1993 to 2013, important improvements to be noted are: GDP per capita jumped from US$4,165 to USD$12,332; inflation decreased from 10.2% to 3.9%; population with income of less than 1 dollar per day dropped from 11.4% to 5.5%; and finally, in terms of average GDP growth Latin America saw a 2% improvement from 2% in 1980 to 4% in 2012. In December 2013, the prestigious Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) described Latin America as one of the key foreign direct investment destinations, and talked about its impressive market of 600 million people, as one of the most important appeals about the region. In this regard, the Latin American exhibition industry has shown tremendous growth in the last decade and promises greatly for the coming years. Aware of this opportunity, UFI invited the exhibition industry professionals to take part in the 2014 Congress in Colombia. Over 300 participants, including the representatives of Polish Chamber of Exhibition Industry, and its members: EasyFairs Poland, Targi w Krakowie, Warsaw Center EXPO XXI, had an occasion to meet the leaders of the Latin American exhibition industry by providing a face to face experience in two of the most amazing cities in Latin America, Bogotá and Cartagena. Source: www.ufi.org