Piscine Global 2016 has confirmed in November its standing as the benchmark exhibition in the pool and spa sector. Applauded by visitors and exhibitors alike, Piscine Global continues to meet the industry professionals’ expectations and now ranks as THE event they cannot afford to miss. Piscine Global took on a new dimension this year, with the network’s new brand being unveiled during the event.

Visitors increasing by 6,6% this year!

Piscine Global 2016 brought together 596 exhibitors from the entire pool and spa sector as well as 17876 visitors – a 6,6% increase on the previous show including many “Top Buyers” from France and around the world.

Piscine Global director Noémi Petit is delighted with the outcome: “In preparing this 27th edition we had a number of clear objectives. Our team set itself three tasks in particular: satisfying our visitors through the quality of the offering and services proposed at the show (accessibility, welcome, hospitality, seminars, training, catering, events, etc), satisfying our exhibitors by showcasing their products and attracting a large number of high-quality visitors, and making the exhibition a key networking forum enabling the sector players to discuss their current challenges and prepare the future. A great deal of work goes into
planning this exhibition, but most of the actions we rolledout for this edition were aimed at attracting a steady flow of high-quality visitors.

The French professionals who attended said their visit would be highly beneficial for their business, and the buyers from other countries said they had discovered the most international exhibition in the sector with such a wide offering that they were already planning to come back in 2018.

We organisers are delighted to be so well supported by the profession, especially through our partnership with the FPP [French Federation of Swimming Pool Professionals], but also thanks to the backing we receive from all our other press and federation partners. And last but not least, we would like to thank our exhibitors for the superb stand displays they designed for this year’s show”.

Areas and key events geared to the professionals’ needs

Whatever their interests and areas of expertise, the visitors were won over by the many key events that took place at the show. With nearly 30 seminars, the Pool Summit, Showroom Academy, Piscine Innovations, Pool Vision awarding the world’s most beautiful pools, live demonstrations at the Aquafitness Festival and Piscine Water Tests, thematical days dedicated to public authorities, specifiers and tourism and leisure establishments, and speed meetings (short pre-arranged business meetings), there was something for absolutely everyone!

For IPC, a Czech company specialising in pool enclosures and spas, the exhibition is a real business opportunity, in the words of Jiri Kubes, its CEO: “We are pleased to present our expertise at this BtoB show. One of our main reasons for attending is the strength and depth of the network of both national and international decisionmakers we can meet here.
We always showcase innovations at the exhibition. Our objective is to find new business opportunities, and Piscine Global is one means of achieving it”.

IPC Stand - Piscine Global 2016

Lonza Water Treatment is another company that wouldn’t dream of missing Piscine Global: “The hth® brand is oriented entirely towards professionals, and this major event helps us build our relationships with our French and international customers. The exhibition raises awareness of our new hth® design and our brand innovations, even more so this year since we have won the Piscine Innovations award in the Sustainable Development category for our hth® Maxitab Action 5 Easy product (chlorine tabs in water-soluble sachets)”, stresses Caroline Beauval, the brand’s Strategic Marketing Manager.
 

The event was also a great success for Fluidra, as confirmed by Stéphanie Morin, its Marketing Director for France: “This event is an opportunity for us to present our new products to customers and prospects. It’s also the ideal setting for us to launch the brand’s new catalogue and to propose special introductory offers. We are proud to attend Piscine Global – it’s a real out-of-season highlight for us. It’s a friendly networking event that enables us to take stock and see how we are progressing in building our customer relationships”.

Showcasing innovative products and projects

On the innovation front, new products took pride of place once again at Piscine Global, with 82 on display in the Piscine Innovations area. Eleven innovative projects – the world’s most beautiful swimming pools and the finest showroom – received awards at two Piscine Parties held during the show.

The winners of the 2016 Piscine Innovations Trophies

© Elisabeth Rull

Among them was the novel Mobipool concept from Piscines Desjoyaux. “We are proud to be awarded this trophy. We put a lot of work into Mobipool, a very unusual product. Making a swimming pool float is a pretty crazy idea. The market for it has to be created, so we hope this award will give us a real boost”, Marketing Director Nicolas Desjoyaux explains.

Desjoyaux Stand - Piscine Global 2016

This sense of pride is shared by Alphadif. Its co-founder, Philippe Poma, says: “We strive every day to design LED lighting solutions that are ever easier to install and use. The Ecoproof^TM PAR56 lamp is a further illustration of this process. It’s a worldwide innovation offering benefits when either building a new pool, or renovating or replacing an existing one. It is 100% watertight and features a connection chamber at the back, so it can be fitted seamlessly in place of a 300W filament lamp or an existing LED lamp. The Piscine Innovations jury made no mistake. We are particularly proud of this prize, since it rewards and underscores SeaMAID’s spirit of innovation”.

Innovation is also thriving on the international scene, enabling foreign companies to break into the French market. One good example is German company Speck Pumpen. Its Managing Director Armin Herger confirms: “It’s the first time we have won a Piscine Innovations award. We are very proud. The BADU Profi-MK Eco VS is an energy-efficient pump with a modern design and no mechanical seals. We hope this trophy will boost awareness of our brand in France”.

An international event bringing the entire sector together

A key factor in the success of Piscine Global is the high quality of the networking opportunities it provides for players from across the pool and spa industry.

Whether formal or informal, these meetings contribute value to the exhibition and enable professionals to share experiences, exchange ideas and prepare the sector’s future.

More than 15 national federations from around the world hence attended the exhibition including : FPP (France), BSW (Germany), APSP (United States), ASOFAP (Spain), UHE (Turkey), Piletas (Argentina), EUSA (Europe), SPASA (Australia), PHTCC (Canada), NSPI (South Africa), ANAPP (Brasil)… to take part in the Pool Summit, the only sector meeting of its kind in the world. International delegations from Brazil, Israel, Denmark, Senegal and Martinique also made the trip. To the same end, 8 loyal ambassadors have formed a network committed to supporting and promoting the exhibition.

The new Piscine Global brand policy unveiled for the first time

At the 2016 edition, the network of professional pool and spa exhibitions entered a new era. The Piscine Global network officially revealed its new look – a new presentation, a new logo, a new graphic identity and new communication visuals – and set out its ambitions for the future.

Noémi Petit, Director of Piscine Global, explains: “We observed that our exhibitors and visitors are focusing their approaches more closely on the customer experience and on increasingly polished marketing presentations. These were the two key factors which convinced us that we had to present the swimming pool as a lifestyle. This choice of key message underscores the exhibition’s image as a strong, quality-oriented event that showcases French know-how and covers a global network.”

In November 2016, Piscine Global thus became the global network of pool and wellness events, currently grouping together four industry-leading professional
events:

● Piscine Global Asia 5 and 6 April 2017
● Piscine Global Middle East 18 to 20 September 2017
● Piscine Global Brasil 24 to 26 July 2018
● Piscine Global Europe 13 to 16 November 2018

The name, visual and logo, the international versions and the various events organised in conjunction with the exhibition have been redesigned to make them easier to read and understand both in France and internationally. Communication is a key factor in building the exhibition’s renown, and a new approach centred on the swimming pool lifestyle will be rolled out for the forthcoming events.

Note the date: the next edition of Piscine Global Europe will take place at Lyon,

from 13 to 16 November 2018!