Another of the key arguments in favour of exhibiting at FIMMA-MADERALIA this year is the assured presence of both Spanish and international VIP buyers. "From the organising committee's point of view we place considerable value on the quality as opposed to the number of visitors," asserts the director of LAMIPLAST. In his view, "neither exhibitors nor buyers have time to spare. We are creating a style of exhibition whereby everybody is able to make optimum use of their time. The market has contracted but offers everyone the same opportunities. This is why it is critical now to make sales activity as professional as possible and gain the maximum benefit from that activity. Demand and consumption are down but both will be there in force at FIMMA-MADERALIA."

In Juan Vicente Gómez Lechón's opinion, the economic crisis will begin to resolve itself when liquidity between companies and credit flow again. A biennial event such as FIMMA-MADERALIA will serve to lay the foundations of confidence between supply and demand. As he explains, "if you take it as a given that a new builds involve a very lengthy process, then refurbishment and renovation become a fundamental way of generating activity and employment for businesses in this sector."

"The industry's trade fair needs to be the driver of a mechanism that covers administration, technical and professional workers, companies and consumers," Gómez-Lechón explains. "The carpentry and furniture sectors are calling for solutions in this regard."

For the director of LAMIPLAST this year's FIMMA-MADERALIA could, curiously, serve as a vehicle for the market to do a roll-call, as it were, of those companies that are in the frame and those that are not. This in turn would create the starting grid for a new industry in the coming years. "Only those companies that can demonstrate that they are in pole position, active, well-known and are excited will be capable of attracting the interest of a shrinking and increasingly demanding market," concludes Gómez-Lechón.