SIAL celebrates its 60-year history in 2024
SIAL Paris will be celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2024, 60 years of innovation at the service of the agro-food sector. The SIAL 2024 edition will be an opportunity to celebrate this exceptional anniversary with many special events, and unveil a new layout for exhibitors.
“A table !” (“Food is served!”). With this exclamation, the regional newspaper “Ouest-France” celebrated the opening of the first edition of the “Salon International de l’Alimentation” (“International Food Show”). The event was taking place in November 1964 at the futuristic CNIT, an exhibition structure made of concrete in the shape of a shell, a symbol of France’s economic prosperity and confidence in the future at that time.
At this first edition experts and trade visitors came from 26 countries. The 1964 edition was indeed open to both trade visitors and the public. Allowing the public to visit was important at the time because a third of all French household expenses was dedicated to food. Both professionals and the public discovered a wide range of international food products at that first show.
60 years have gone by and the management of the show is getting ready to celebrate the anniversary of the world’s largest food business trade fair. SIAL Paris will open its doors at the Parc des Expositions Paris Nord Villepinte from October 19 to 23, 2024.
The 60th anniversary of the trade fair will provide an opportunity for the industry’s professionals to look back on six decades of game-changing innovations and, most importantly, to look forward to the future. For Audrey Ashworth, SIAL Paris’s Director, “we are working to create an even more lively, delightful anniversary edition, presenting a number of new features. For example, we are reinforcing the Start-Up hub; creating a new experience exploring product innovations; improving our layout to facilitate the circuit; and launching ambitious meetings to address the key issues facing the sector.”
“Of course, we are also preparing festivities for this 60th anniversary. Overall, the 2024 edition promises more business, more discoveries, and more inspirations,” she added.
The 60th anniversary edition in 2024 will also be an opportunity to look back on the past and forward to the future of the continually evolving agro-food sector. A retrospective of 60 years of innovation is a way also to better understand what will shape tomorrow’s food business.
Retrospective and new layout of the fair grounds
This retrospective will form a common thread that will guide SIAL throughout 2024. On the prospective side, it will be expressed through the theme “Own the Change,” a rallying collective movement to encourage professionals in the industry to lay claim to the changes underway and to address the world’s great food challenges.
First and foremost, through SIAL’s determination to showcase the CSR initiatives implemented by the exhibitors at the trade show, as well as the various forms of expertise supported by the event. Such is the case of SIAL Insights, a biennial analysis which deciphers the major trends in the food industry by interpreting the results of a worldwide study performed by a pool of experts over a two-year period.
This is also the case of SIAL Innovation, revealing what new developments to expect in tomorrow’s world. And of SIAL Start-Up, which continues to ramp up from year to year. In 2024, twice as many promising start-ups – including early-stage concepts – will appear within this specialised space.
Finally, the 2024 edition will reveal a new layout for exhibitor booth arrangements. SIAL listens to trade visitors, 80% of whom have expressed their wish to see the stands organised by product type in order to make rounds more efficient. The new floor plan will group the expected 7,500 exhibitors by theme.
SIAL 60 years logo: Credit: SIAL
Join us at SIAL Paris as exhibitor Join us at SIAL Paris as visitor
