Fi Europe co-located with Hi Europe has announced they are postponing the live event to 2021 and are transitioning to virtual for their 2020 event.

Over recent weeks and months, the Fi Europe team has been in discussions with key industry stakeholders and partners to stay abreast of the challenges facing the F&B industry due to COVID-19. While the event was set to take place this December with Informa’s AllSecure guidelines incorporating the highest standards of hygiene and cleanliness, the decision to postpone the live event and transition to virtual was taken as a result of the global nature of the event.

Fi Europe co-located with Hi Europe is a truly international event which brings together key industry players from all over the world. Given international travel is only returning gradually, stakeholders and partners felt it was difficult to ensure the same level of participation typically expected at the live event, and thus the Fi Europe team made the difficult decision to transition to a virtual format in 2020, with the expectation that they will return to Frankfurt as a best-in-class physical event from 30 November to 2 December 2021. The following year the show will take place in Paris.

For 2020, the Fi Europe team are transforming Europe’s largest F&B exhibition into a unique digital experience and expo. Fi Europe CONNECT 2020 is a virtual event designed to give the F&B community access to the global F&B ingredients industry, tools and collaboration opportunities they require to meet their business objectives.

Attracting over 8,000 attendees at their virtual event which will shape the future of the F&B industry, giving the community the chance to stay up to date with trends through 100+ on-demand and 16+ expert sessions and to use Fi Europe’s data-driven matchmaking service to find the most relevant buyers for customers’ products and solutions.

This year’s Food ingredients Europe co-located with Health ingredients Europe will be organised in accordance with Informa’s AllSecure health and safety standard, developed in response to COVID-19. As one of the world’s leading events organiser, Informa Markets will employ enhanced measures to ensure the highest levels of hygiene and safety. Informa Markets is confident that the show will take place as planned from 1-3 December at Messe Frankfurt, Germany, with strong support from the Fi and Hi Europe communities.

AllSecure is an industry-wide standard that has been developed in close cooperation with partners, such as the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry (UFI), venues, suppliers and relevant authorities for exhibition organisers to adopt and provide reassurance to attendees that events are being held in a safe and controlled environment. For Fi Europe co-located with Hi Europe, in particular, the Informa Markets team is in close contact and constant consultation with the City of Frankfurt, the State of Hesse and Messe Frankfurt.

Informa AllSecure is how the industry-wide standard will be adopted at Informa events and features some 35 detailed protocols, covering Cleaning & Hygiene Countermeasures (prior to stand build, again before event opening and during the duration of the event), Phyiscal Distancing following the Crowd Density Standards as set by the State of Hesse, Communication across all channels and platforms, and Protect and Detect in collaboration with the local health authorities.