Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair is the largest event in the world for Scandinavian furniture and the place where you will find the most comprehensive range of furniture, offices, design, textiles and other interior design. On February 9-13 will take place a new edition so we have had an interview with the organisers of the event to discover all the novelties. And if you are going to exhibit, don't miss the tips they give us!
What novelties will we enjoy the next edition?
- Guest of Honour 2016 – Barber & Osgerby - Every year we invite a highly acclaimed international designer or design studio to create a lounge in Stockholmsmässan’s entrance hall. This year the assignment has gone to British design studio, Barber & Osgerby, who have received international acclaim for their innovative furniture, industrial design and architecture.
- The Design Bar 2016 - All the fun of the fair - The Design Bar, which is a cross between an exhibition and a world-class restaurant will be created this year by architect Andreas Martin-Löf in cooperation with the award-winning chef, Fredrik Eriksson.
- Established - We have created a completely new zone for designers and design studios with a proven track record - Established. The aim is to promote diversity in the industry and encourage designers’ own small-scale production lines.
- Trends Exhibition 2016/17 - This year we have invited designer Emma Olbers, interior stylist Susanna Vento and interior stylist Christine Rudolph to create a room each: the outdoors area, the Teatime & Playtime room and the meeting room. The theme for all three is Nature is back for good!
- The exhibition Aurora – Nordic Architecture and Design - The exhibition consists of two parts, one focusing on architecture, The Common good! and one focusing on design, Nordic Conditions. Aurora is created in collaboration with the independent architecture and design initiative, Summit.
- Greenhouse 2016 - Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair's hall for young and unestablished designers, is designed this year the design studio, Form Us With Love.
You also improve the tools of the trade show to make the visit easier, for example with the app of the show. anyway, there is something that visitors or exhibitors need to know to exhibit at Stockholm?
It is easy to visit us, but we recommend visitors to pre-register and pay their ticket online.
What makes Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair different from other shows of its kind?
Our exhibitors and visitors often talk about the high quality of the exhibitors as well as the format are not too big. High concentration of quality. And if you want to see the latest news and the most important Scandinavian exhibitors – they are all here.
Probably many of our users are going to exhibit at Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair, or are thinking about it. Can you give them some tips or talk about the benefits of exhibiting?
- Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair is the world’s largest meeting place for Scandinavian design - all the people in the industry are here.
- excellent opportunity to make business and network
- see a quote from one of our exhibitors 2015:
“This is the furniture nerd’s Woodstock and one of the year’s most important events for us. The home field is always the home field. I am completely convinced that we could reach 60,000 visitors in a reasonable amount of time. The new hall layout makes it a possibility. It is now possible to squeeze in more exhibitors, which in turn attracts more visitors. More attracts more, and we probably had 10% more customers on our stand compared to last year.”
Johan Lindau, Blå Station
Can you recommend us a specific conference or event we can't miss this year?
- You should see all the concept exhibitions
- Stockholm Design Talks, the fairs own forum for knowledge and discussions within the area of design. The theme for 2016 is Scandinavia Now and shines a light on topics and projects that are happening now.
Among others:
- Jenny B. Osuldsen, Partner & Senior Landscape Architect Snøhetta, Oslo, Lecture 10/2
- The new Nordic, LCA & the green shift: Snøhetta works in a constant process of reinvention of design. The use of creative processes, analogue and digital tools and new challenges in “the green shift” are influencing and pushing our work into the future. This will be discussed through project examples of Snøhetta works.
What is the visitor's profile?
The visitors are first and foremost purchasers for both home and public environments, architects, decorators and designers. Visitors come from all over the world. (Last year, visitors from about 60 countries).
Can you give us some participation results from the last edition?
Approximately 700 companies, of which 300 were international companies, set up exhibitions in Stockholmsmässan's 70,000 m2. Around 80 percent of all of the exhibiting companies came from Scandinavia.
The fair attracted around 40,000 visitors and 6,635 were foreign visitors, which corresponds to around 27% of the industry visitors and an increase of more than 15% compared to last year. The visitors came from more than 60 countries, with the most representation from Norway (1,720), Finland (1,177) and Denmark (970).