Host and Milan – a love-story that has lasted for 38 shows. It was fate that brought the acknowledged capital of Italian industry and the undisputed world leader of professional hospitality and retail together: in fact, the Host International Hospitality Exhibition is celebrating the year of EXPO by giving itself a new name, HostMilano, for the fair that will take place at the Fieramilano fairground in Rho from Friday 23 to Tuesday 27 October, literally steps away from the Expo Universal Exposition that Host2015 will accompany towards its grand climax.

Thanks to the presence of a panel of experts on the subject, the workshop, chaired by well-known journalist and author Carlo Spinelli, provided an insight into the Italian model of first-class hospitality: a wealth of know-how resulting from the expertise of HostMilano and the preparations for EXPO, but increasingly regarded as an excellent basis for the future of Italian hospitality in the medium and long term.

“The figures resulting from the two initiatives we have organized speak for themselves,” commented Franco d’Alfonso, Councilor for Tourism of Milan City Council.

“There are more than 20 thousand events in the program for Expo in Città, while more than 1,500 commercial businesses have signed the Expo Treaty, which aims to provide quality services for visitors to the exhibition.”

Alessandro Rosso, Chairman of the Alessandro Rosso Group, spoke about how Italy can capitalize on its lifestyle by focusing on the luxury segments: “Today, Milan already provides really first-class hospitality, and HostMilano, with its global leadership position, plays a key role in this evolution. Nowadays, foreign tourists who come to Italy want to try out the most exclusive form of Italian living in various fields, whether it’s food, art, fashion or design: that is exactly the type of experience we are aiming to provide at the Seven Stars Galleria Townhouse Duomo Hotel.

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“The contemporary hotel is the only truly global kind of well-being for a certain category of citizens of the world who are nomads on business, who are bohemian in their lifestyle and demand luxury,” added the architect Dante O. Benini. “With the EXIHS project, at Host2015 we are interpreting this evolution by exploiting the capacity of Italian companies to operate across the board, as general contractors, offering first-class products and services throughout the supply chains and down to the last detail.”

Davide Oldani, multi-starred chef and owner of the D’O restaurant on the outskirts of Milan, ended the proceedings as follows: “In this concept of lifestyle, it’s important to give more space to chefs in hotels, but not only there. For this reason, too, Host2015 is an example of Italian excellence and the concept of hospitality in Italy, because it devotes a great deal of space to cooking, along with other products and services which mean that it can be developed in the best possible way.”

In harmony with the themes of EXPO, another thing that emerged from the event was the important role being played by food supply chains for the success of the Italian model of first-class hospitality. All of them have specialties that are icons of Italian living in the world, such as pasta or pizza in the ‘Food Service Equipment’ and ‘Bread-Pasta-Pizza’ segments, or Italian espresso coffee and ice-cream in the ‘Coffee/Tea’, ‘Bar/Coffee machines/Vending’ and ‘Ice-cream/Confectionery’ segments.

Host2015 will be devoting a great deal of attention to all these segments, both during the course of the exhibition, in the dedicated macro-areas, and through a diverse program of events ranging from seminars and show-cooking displays to exciting challenges and world championships, disputed by the top masters of the various specialties in Italy and worldwide. The fact that Host is taking place at the same time as the Universal Exposition thus strengthens HostMilano’s role in raising the status of Italian companies on the international stage and its role as a leading engagement in the global scenario, with the latest food-processing technologies and food products devoted to commercial catering.

Because hospitality isn’t just jobs for a few people: for the city of Milan it’s a true vocation.

The city has succeeded in playing the system and is once again ready to open itself up to the world as a single grand dimension of Italian excellence. With its philosophy geared to innovation and internationalization, HostMilano supports the local area’s flair for hospitality, painstakingly constructed over time, and its capacity to renew itself through new experiences, ideas invented by great innovators, intelligent investments and far-sighted institutions.

Host: www.host.fieramilano.it