“We have never seen so much automation and so many advanced systems in any other exhibition around the world!”. This was a recurring statement in the aisles of Xylexpo, the biennial international exhibition of technology and systems for the wood and furniture industry, held at FieraMilano-Rho last May 8 to 12. In terms of contents, the event has kept its promise: plenty of technology for secondary operation industries, from panels to solid wood; the best offer of furniture manufacturing systems; and the most advanced "Industry X.0" solutions.

The exhibition has been rewarded by a substantial flow of industry visitors, with 17,781 operators, 2.1 percent more than the previous edition. Among them, 5,032 came from abroad, 28.3 percent of total attendance, basically in line with 2016.

Of course, good results for Italy, with 12,749 industry professionals, up by 3.3 percent from the previous edition, accounting for 71.7 percent of total attendance.

On the whole, the expo center recorded 37 thousand accesses.

“With these figures we can say that Xylexpo has found its place in the more and more crowded and sometimes messy landscape of industry exhibitions”, commented Dario Corbetta, director of the exhibition. “We have made a clear choice, namely to be a stage for "high technology", and this approach has increased the participation of an even more selected and qualified audience, with decision-making power and adequate expertise”.

Such "repositioning" has drawn the attention of industry operators, who know well what Xylexpo can offer them in this new season.

By adding the fourth hall in this edition, we could define a more suitable layout matching the ambitions of Xylexpo 2018, which reached an extension of 34,785 net square meters and hosted 425 exhibitors (116 from 27 countries).

The dates of the next Xylexpo have already been fixed: Monday 25 to Friday 29, May 2020, changing the traditional Tuesday-to-Saturday timeframe.