BARCELONA, Spain—This year's in-cosmetics has increased its unique visitor number for the 2012 event by 5 percent, delivering one of the most successful editions in the exhibition’s history. Welcoming 590 exhibitors, it was also the biggest show ever, 10 percent larger than last year’s record-breaking Milan show.
The three-day event, which is widely recognized as the world’s leading global business platform for personal care ingredients, recorded a total of 7,152 unique visitors in attendance at Barcelona’s Gran Via Exhibition Centre. The total daily visitor figure (including re-visits) increased by 9 percent to 13,071.
As ever, the international contingent was strong, with 70 percent visitors hailing from outside of Spain in search of the newest products and latest developments from the world’s most innovative personal care ingredients suppliers.
Carmilo Vargas, R&D applied research scientist visiting from Belcorp in Colombia, commented on his experience. “We have been visiting in-cosmetics for 10 years now and it has once again proven to be a show where we have been able to see the latest innovations, products and suppliers," he said. "This enables us to stay ahead as far as new concepts for product formulations are concerned, something that is crucial in any industry."
And it was not just visitors who were impressed by the opportunities the event offered. Dawn Glass, Business director at Brazilian exhibitor Beraca, added: “The first two days of the show were non-stop. Every table was full with customers from all over the world, with an especially good representation from North America."
Alongside Beraca were more than 70 first time exhibitors including Birke Goetz of Swiss company Jungbunzlauer International AG, who commented: “This is our first in-cosmetics and it has been highly successful – we’ve managed to speak to hundreds of people, with many of these being decision makers from new market sectors. We’ve already booked for the Paris show next year and can’t wait to further our success there."
in-cosmetics is the industry’s annual launch pad for new products and hundreds of innovations were on display, including more than 70 brand new products unveiled on the Innovation Zone—the visitor’s roadmap for launches at the show. This commitment to creativity was echoed at the Innovation Zone Best Ingredient Award, which saw Unipex/Lucas Meyer Cosmetics scoop Gold for its new ingredients Progeline™ and ADIPOFILL™.
A man-made beach complete with real sand, deckchairs and parasols, provided the perfect Mediterranean backdrop for the in-focus Solar Beauty theme. The beach brought together a full-scale innovation platform where visitors could explore the history of sun care, chat with experts on regulation, social networks and new technologies or have their skin tested for UV exposure. Echoed throughout the event, in-focus also offered a Scientific Seminar on sun protection, panel discussions on the latest solar trends, while Mintel gave product demonstrations based on the latest sun care launches from the East and the West on the Innovation Zone. To ensure that visitors were easily able to identify exhibitors with solar beauty innovations, a dedicated “Solar Trail" highlighted 28 suppliers, including Arkema, BASF, Croda, DKSH, Laserson, Lipotec and Solabia.
A series of well-attended Innovation Seminars, Workshops, Scientific Seminars and Marketing Trends presentations covered hot topics such as green formulations, the possible alternatives to animal testing and the cutting-edge technologies involved in Cosmetogenomics, making this year’s educational programme one of the most in-demand to-date.
Alain Giraud, business development manager at Euromonitor, concluded: “We’ve been attending the show for ten years now and it’s always a profitable trip, with around 20 percent of our meetings generating new business. People do not put a proper value on trade shows—the bottom line is, if you aren’t here, you really miss out."
The next in-cosmetics event takes place in Paris, Hall 1, Paris Porte de Versailles, on April 16 to 18, 2013.
