The world's largest aquaculture exhibition, Aqua Nor, had a record number of visitors this year. "The exhibition is a very effective meeting place, created by all the exhibitors and visitors who are here", said Liv Holmefjord, Chairman of the Board of the Nor-Fishing Foundation, organizer of the event. Representatives of 61 nations visited the exhibition during the four days it lasted.
Aqua Nor drew a number of foreign delegations to Trondheim. Five foreign ministers visited the exhibition as heads of official delegations. "This is very nice and quite flattering. And when people say they will be back the next time, we feel that we have succeeded, said Ola Eriksen, Managing Director of Trondheim Spektrum, the technical organizer.
Many of the fish farming companies brought a number of their own staff to the exhibition this time. Managers as well as people in the work force. "It is very interesting to talk to all these people", said Eriksen. "The common comment from the exhibitors is that it gives them an opportunity to discuss professional problems, but also to just get together more socially".
A new feature this year was several events organized around town during the exhibition, and especially at the Ravnkloa fish mongers market at the waterfront. "In spite of rain and less than perfect weather people did go out and attended these events", said Eriksen. The Ravnkloa "Salmon Table" and concerts organized in connection with this were well attended. "It seems we managed to fill a need that we really did not know was there. This part of the program was a joint initiative with the Trondheim Business Association, one of the local banks, Visit Trondheim and Trondheim Spektrum".
New information technology was put to use for the first time this year. In the main entrance hall a large information screen was installed, and some 15 smaller screens were placed in the various exhibition halls to inform visitors and exhibitors of coming events. In addition an application for "smart phones" was developed to show a map of the area and the entire program for the exhibition and related events. "With more than 20 mini-seminars and conferences going on it is not always easy to remember when and where to go, said Eriksen. " We will be developing this further for the next exhibition".
In a comment at the end of the exhibition, Liv Holmefjord, Chairman of the Nor-Fishing Foundation, said: " We are very happy with the results this year. But we are already looking ahead to the next exhibition, which is the Nor-Fishing fisheries technology exhibition August 14 - 17 , 2012. We are going to review our experiences from this year over the next few weeks. We had some minor technical problems during the first day, and there have been some queues forming in the restaurants at times. No major disasters, but we still have to look at whatever improvements we can implement. At any rate, we promise we will do our best so that people will be happy with the arrangements when we open the doors next year.
