The General Meeting of Polish Chamber of Exhibition Industry, held on 2 June, 2015, in Poznań, approved the program of activity for 2015. The resolution no. 24/WZ/2015 presents main objectives of the PCEI activities. These objectives are: development of the exhibition market in Poland, expansion of the area of activities of PCEI Members and diversification of the forms of participation in PCEI actions. Development of the exhibition market It is necessary to mention that the exhibition market in Poland is mature. This means, among others: faltering growth of demand, fierce competition, among others through lowering prices, decline of profitability and great importance of promotion and the quality of customer service. The role of Polish Chamber of Exhibition Industry in this situation is to conduct actions aimed at strengthening sales among the existing and future customers as well as enter new, previously under-represented markets, particularly the SME market. Among the planned actions, the following must be mentioned: – conducting an exhibition marketing campaign, – continuation of the Exhibition Ambassador project, – cooperation of PCEI and exhibition centres with local authorities in terms of place marketing and promotion of the importance of exhibitions for the economic development of cities and regions, – cooperation of PCEI with trade chambers and associations of exhibitors, and with chambers and associations of chambers, in particular with the Polish Chamber of Commerce, – presence of PCEI in social media, – education in exhibition-related topics in collaboration with tertiary instructions : exhibitions as an instrument of marketing, space composition, place marketing, event management and facility management, – factual cooperation when publishing exhibition supplements in the press. Expansion of the area of activities of PCEI Members The second PCEI objective nowadays is to expand the area of activities of PCEI Members. The role of the Chamber is to support the Members in the actions they undertake. Exhibition organizers are entering the MICE market (meetings, incentives, conferencing, exhibitions) and, on the other hand, entities which operate on the MICE market are entering the market of exhibition organizers. In turn, exhibition service providers deal not only with the construction of exhibition stands but also with space composition during corporate, cultural and sports events, etc. In this situation, an important challenge is to start cooperation with chambers and associations which represent the event and congress sectors. Additionally, the Stand of the Year and Leader of Trade Fair Services contests should be reformed so as to include the expanded area of activity. Diversification of the forms of participation in PCEI actions Polish Chamber of Exhibition Industry is no longer a representative organization of the sector for two reasons, the Polish exhibition industry definitely needs diversification of the forms of participation : – firstly, many participants of the exhibition market (exhibition organizers, exhibition grounds operators, exhibition service providers) are not Members of the Chamber, – secondly, the diversification of the activities of the participants of the exhibition market causes that other chambers or associations are becoming their representatives in some areas of activity. In this situation, what must be considered is, apart from the membership in the organization, other forms of participation in PCEI actions – participation in a particular project. In 2015 PCEI will continue undertakings which are the achievements of many years of work of the Chamber, or which result from ongoing needs and which bring desired promotional results, such as: – lobbying state authorities and the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland to restore in Poland the so-called priority certificate from exhibitions under the Industrial Property Law, – continuing PCEI actions aimed at adoption of the so-called Code of Good Practice of the Exhibition Industry as a set of ethical and professional standards for enterprises of the exhibition sector and simultaneously an instrument which would strengthen the position of exhibitions in the eyes of all stakeholders of the exhibition industry, – lobbying authorities to change the EU laws and new regulations concerning the minimum wage in Germany, which refer to delegated employees (bureaucratic obstacles), which are unfavourable for Polish exhibiting companies and exhibitors, – cooperation with the media in order to strengthen the role of PCEI as a representative of the exhibition self-government and an expert, aimed at improving the image of exhibitions in the perception of the general public (cooperation of the PR agency), – maintaining the exhibition portal www.new.polfair.pl (Polish and English language versions), – monitoring, auditing and publishing transparent statistical data of exhibitions in Poland (Report Exhibitions in Poland ), – foreign cooperation (active membership in UFI – including participation in UFI actions connected with the promotional project International Day of Exhibitions , and participation in other UFI and EEIA projects; ongoing promotional cooperation with other foreign exhibition organizations (CENTREX, AUMA, EMECA, IFES, other), – organization of PCEI Winter Meeting 2015. Source: Polish Chamber of Exhibition Industry, June 2015.