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Overview
Innovative enterprises, top business leaders and high-level government decision makers dealing with promising new technologies from both industrialized and emerging economies exhibited and met at the Technology Fair of the Future, organized by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The Fair was held at the Anhembi (São Paulo city) Conventions and Exhibitions Centre, the largest events area in Latin America.
The Technology Fair of the Future was one event in the XI General Conference of UNCTAD, which gathered around 3,000 participants from over 190 countries. Other related events were the EMPRETEC/SEBRAE Business Fair, WAIPA Investment Forum and Fair Brazil Invest, ITC Competitiveness Tools Fair and NGOs Solidarity Market Fair. Simultaniously at the same Exhibition Pavillon a major fair took place, the FISPAL 20th International Food Fair, the most important fair for food products in Latin America. These events together offered to participants an interesting and dynamic business enabling environment.
Aim of the Fair
To offer participating enterprises and technology institutes the opportunity to present new ideas, designs, concepts, future products and markets as well as foresight visions in their fields of specialization. It also offered participants a platform to forge partnerships, linkages, strategic alliances and joint ventures for improved access to markets.
The Technology Fair highlights selected technology sectors :
- energy
- biotechnology
- nano-technology and materials
- information and communication
- aerospace
special feature: technologies for low-income and least developed countries (LDCs) - renewable energy, agro-food processing, medicines and building materials.
Target participants:
- innovative enterprises and technology parks
- research and development institutes
- institutions for innovation support
all operating at or near the frontier of knowledge in developing countries and countries with economies in transition
- leading research centers and companies from developed countries
- institutions supporting partnerships for low-income and least developed countries
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Components
Exhibition
Players in the highlighted technology areas and industrial sectors exhibited and presented their ideas, designs, concepts, prototypes and target markets at the Fair of the Future in three forms:
o Physically at booths
o Virtually using multi-media
o Presentations at the auditorium
Forum on technology trends and needs in global value chains
Leading experts presented the new context of global value chains and responses to this challenge by enterprises in developing and least developed countries. Major technology trends were presented from the results of foresight studies. The debate gave an opportunity to the different stakeholders from developing and least developed countries to present their technology needs, to identify mechanisms to match needs and trends and to determine their potential role in global value chains. The Forum offered also practical information on how to set up and manage innovative enterprises to operate in regional and global markets. The Forum started with a round table on harnessing emerging technologies to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Business meetings
Appropriate facilities were available to experts, business people and venture capital investors to discuss and evaluate potential opportunities and to target markets for joint operation and partnerships. Video conferencing was also available for international business discussions.
Catalogue of innovative enterprises
The Fair offered the opportunity to the participating enterprises and technology institutes to apply for listing in the UNIDO/ UNCTAD catalogue of innovative companies in developing countries and economies in transition. Leading global enterprises and public media was invited to sponsor and disseminate this catalogue.
Size and facilities of the Fair
The Fair was designed to accomodate up to 100 companies and technology institutes from all regions of the world using the different facilites available. The selected participants were offered facilities free of charge for using: exhibition area with booths in an island concept, auditorium, multi-media area and rooms for business meetings (including video conferencing).
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The Technology Fair of the Future offered the participants an unique possibility to up-date information on trends and opportunities in technology-based business, as well as to build relationships and networks with top leaders from industry, finance, research communities, governments and international organizations
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