Mido: innovation, research, fashion, design and training

Mido 2011 keeps its promise to never stop improving. Its 41st exhibition will draw many new Italian and overseas exhibitors and can already confirm the participation of the industry’s leading manufacturers Three packed days designed for full-immersion in the world of eyewear: from frames to lenses, with lots of machinery along the way. Areas dedicated to fashion, innovation, and design, and an enticing schedule of meetings and training sessions. Powerful collaborative projects with Milan’s other fashion-related shows - MICAM, MIFUR and MIPEL.

An excellent starting place
MIDO is the undisputed ‘must-attend’ appointment on the global eyewear industry calendar. Widely endorsed again this year by loyal domestic and international firms, as the sector’s leading manufacturers have already confirmed their participation in Mido 2011. Alongside them are some of the up and coming names in eyewear – both Italian and foreign in origin – who have elected to make their debut at Mido with innovative, pioneering products for the world of eyewear. Even some of the prominent large-scale retail chains promise to be on hand.
Manufacturers in the field of eyewear have renewed their trust, in recognition of Mido’s superior added value, and its ability, year after year, to be an unsurpassed marketing tool and a unique opportunity for elevating business and communication. The success of a trade fair depends on the need to touch the products, to evaluate the skills of manufacturers, to ‘sniff out’ market trends and trending innovations, to network, to gain specific insights, and to conduct business. Over the years, Mido has honed its skills as a versatile tool of trade fair success, transforming itself to meet the needs of manufacturers and the demands of the market. Through this ongoing process of renewal, Mido has become a trade fair that is not just a showcase. It doesn’t stop at simply displaying products and pointing the way to general industry trends. It stands out in particular for its ability to show off some of the available alternatives, in terms of skills and capacities, of the various manufacturers -- their ability to create products based on certain specifications; their creative and innovative skills; and their overall reliability. Mido is also the designated showplace where companies can introduce and display their products, bring in orders, and earn a place in the media spotlight through communication.

A complete package – that’s the winning ticket!
The success of a fair like Mido is in its completeness, because it is here that new eyewear trends are exclusively previewed, here lenses and machinery boasting latest generation technology are tested, here emerging companies and high-fashion signature lines debut their new collections. Completeness also means making space for all the industry sectors – with entire pavilions dedicated to each specific sector: lenses, machines, accessories, frames, large and small companies, traditional and cutting edge – it’s one of the strengths that lasts over time.

Design, Fashion, Innovation and Health
The 2011 show brings back the Mido Design Lab, an area featuring the most avant-garde manufacturers in terms of experimentation and design, and each year offers new approaches to the world of eyewear. It also marks the inauguration of a new exhibit area called Mido Fashion District, a space occupied by the leading companies in the world of eyewear. In essence, it’s a plaza where the storefront of each of these high profile manufacturers ‘looks out’ upon the central forum. This area is staged under the creative eye of architect and scenographer Francesco Pagliariccio, also a well-known designer, who uses a circular form, evocative of eyeglasses and lenses, as the leitmotif for the entire layout, waiting to be discovered.
The concept of “agora” (Gr: place of assembly) reappears in the Lens and Machinery Pavilion, with an area dedicated to Health and Innovation, where the latest technical innovations in the areas of vision health and prevention will be presented. Design, fashion, technology and training -- Mido 2011 also offers moments of in-depth learning with a series of meetings on currently relevant industry topics. Once again, for this year’s event, the anti-counterfeiting service, first offered by Mido, will be in place inside the fair grounds.
Mido 2011 also serves as a key instrument in media impact, useful as a global showcase for eyewear excellence, in addition to drawing the attention of public opinion to important issues like prevention, regular vision checkups, and the crusade against counterfeiting.

A facilitated route
Mido redesigns its layout and look to meet the changing needs of the market. Its new design opens out into a series of themed ‘plazas’, which make for improved and immediate access to the exhibitors located there, allowing a more dynamic and rational approach to the fair, in consideration of the limited time available – 3 days rather than 4 – and extended hours. The Fair’s ongoing dialog with exhibitors and visitors to find the best possible timing for everyone’s schedule, has allowed it to become a ‘tailor-made’ tool for success.

Mido with a ..touch!
Mido in the present - in light of this more rational “revisitation” of the exhibition layout – acknowledges the multimedia world we live in and relies on the support of the new technologies. In fact, visitors to the fair will have access to a brand-new app for iPhones and iPads, which can be donwloaded to other smartphones, that will provide the information they need to get to the fair, find the location of their favorite stands, and get details and images of the styles on display, as well as many other interactive functions... putting the show easily within ‘touch’!

Strength in union
The significant collaboration, inaugurated 2 years ago, with the other shows in Milan featuring accessories and the fashion system, that resulted in simultaneous scheduling of the Fair in March is also essential to Mido 2011. This concept of completeness, cooperation and synergy – after an initial show last September with the Milan Fashion City project, was confirmed on December 13, 2010 with the presentation of ALL ACCESSories, a fashion-worthy play on words that brands under a single hat, the four international trade fairs -- Mido, Micam, Mipel and Mifur – and presents them to the market as a cohesive unit with a week of accessories, a new brand, a trend lab and a series of international presentations.

This project is also underpinned by its own dedicated magazine and through the organization of a series of press conferences to launch and promote it around the world. The plan is to enhance a key industry like fashion, and more generally, to promote Milan’s excellent trade-fair qualities through different, but complementary, players that have a shared ability to represent the maximum expression of manufacturing, the industry, and international creativity. A perfect example of integration of systems that can’t fail to produce benefits for the entire fair system and for the individual productive entities tied to it, as well as for fashion industry professionals themselves, in terms of promotion, available services and media visibility. Milan is gearing up in the most organic and systematic manner possible to welcome everyone involved.

The countdown to the fair has begun! The date is set for March 4 - 6! Mido is already at work to make 2011 a show in step with the times and increasingly at the service of business dynamics.