On November 28, during the 2013 PCEI Winter Convention in Sandomierz, Polish Chamber of Exhibition Industry and CENTREX – the International Exhibition Statistics Union signed a contract prolonging the cooperation concerning the audit of statistical data of trade fairs and exhibitions organized by the Members of the Chamber. The contract concluded for the years 2014-2015 is another step in the over ten-year-long cooperation between these two exhibition industry organizations. CENTREX organization has been auditing Polish exhibition statistics since 2008. Nevertheless, the history of the cooperation between PCEI and CENTREX – the International Exhibition Statistics Union, in this and other areas, is much longer as it started in 2000 when the predecessor of PCEI – the Polish Trade Fair Corporation, utilizing the expertise of the leading foreign exhibition organizations like CENTREX, which associates exhibition organizers from Central and Eastern Europe, as well as UFI and AUMA, adopted its own standards and statistical definitions for exhibitions organized in Poland, and took a decision to professionally audit the exhibition statistics. At the time the audit was commissioned to the BDO Polska company. The outcome of the cooperation between PCEI and CENTREX is the publication of Polish exhibition statistics in unique international statistical reports. – Thanks to the fruitful cooperation with CENTREX, the international promotion of the statistical data of Polish exhibitions organized by the Members of Polish Chamber of Exhibition Industry has continued since 2008. The CENTREX Statistical Report is the only trade publication of this kind in Central and Eastern Europe. The report for 2012 presents the statistics of 330 exhibitions organized by 28 organizers – the members of CENTREX and members of PCEI – in 29 cities of Central and Eastern Europe. Whereas the latest edition of the UFI Report Euro Fair Statistics 2012 published at the end of the summer contains audited statistics of almost 2500 exhibitions organized in 23 countries in 2012, including 220 exhibitions in Poland – says Marzenna Łukaszewicz, the Executive Director of PCEI. – The cooperation between PCEI and CENTREX is not only limited to the audits of exhibition statistics. It covers many promotional, educational and research initiatives. Among the projects popularizing trade fair education, definitely worth mentioning are the international science conferences organized jointly by our organizations ( Trade fair education in the world, Europe and in Poland (Poznań, 2011), International offer of trade fair education and directions of its development (Gdańsk 2012). PCEI and CENTREX also organized the innovative competition for students The Vision of Exhibitions by 2020 , which was adjudicated last year – adds Halina Trawa, the Deputy Executive Director of PCEI. Source: Polish Chamber of Exhibition Industry, December 2013