Inside: ?zmir International Fair will allow us to become familiar with the oldest tradeshow in Turkey, considered the cradle of Turkey's fairs and expositions industry. This study will show the way the Fair works from the inside, will analyze and show the history of the fair and the city where it takes place, ?zmir and will discover how, in its 80th year, ?zmir International Fair still goes from strength to strength, attracting the largest number audience of buyers of various products to the Turkey’s trade event..The essay will invite the viewers to discover the importance of the ?zmir fair and everything that makes it unique: A fair that has witnessed the history, watching a country travel a long way over the years. Our audience will learn how it was created, how it is managed, and how it is focused into the future by watching the way it works.
How is it possible to prepare a multi-product exhibition including more than 1.000 exhibitors from more than 50 countries and handling almost 1.5 million visitors? What is the story behind an 80 years old fair considered the cradle of Turkey's fairs and expositions industry? Is it possible to adapt to modernity without losing the original spirit started in 1927?“?zmir Fair is one of the most prestigious times and settings of Turkey.” Feyzi Hep?enkal ?zfa? Gen. Md.
On February the 17th of 1923, the 1st Economy Congress was held in ?zmir, eight months before the proclamation of the Turkish Republic, and it was the beginning of the process of the foundation of the ?zmir International Fair. The fair and the festival are held in the compound of ?zmir's vast inner city park named Kültürpark, which corresponds to the city quarters ravaged by the 1922 Great Fire of ?zmir. The Fair is organized by ?ZFA?, a depending company of ?zmir Metropolitan Municipality and on 2011, the 80th ?zmir International Fair will take place between the 8th and the 18th of September.Inside: ?zmir International Fair will show how this Fair has been at the heart of global and local companies in the Consumer and Industrial Products for 80 years and over that time it’s become firmly established as Turkey’s leading trade event.Through exclusive access to the organization processes of the fair, study will show how the Fair is prepared. On June 19th, Ayakkabi/Winter 2011 “30th ?zmir Shoes, Bags and Accessories Fair” will end.
On June the 20th, the countdown will start, an army of workers will work to have everything ready for September the 8th, when the 80th ?zmir International Fair will begin: Trade Visitors, Manufacturers, Importers ; Exporters and General Public, all of them will gather around a multi-product exhibition which will unite a variety of Consumer and Industrial Products under one roof. ?zmir International Fair will gauge the potential of the Turkish market for overseas companies, and for their domestic counterparts, will become the best way to promote themselves.But the study will also show the reader other important aspects around the ?zmir International Fair: • ?zmir International Fair History • The organization of ?zmir International Fair • The creator of the Fair: Dr. Behçet Uz • ?zmir cityHistory made these three elements meet at a point on the road when Turkey was travelling from darkness of war to the light of modernity. While a burnt down city was being transformed into a fairground, no hopes were postponed to the future. The fire that was lighted in ?zmir in 1927, had foreshadowed today's Turkey, with all future could bring.
To transmit these ideas to our audience, the aspects that the essay wants to reflect, gravitate around the following concepts:?zmir International Fair’s HistoryAt the beginning of 20th Century, ?zmir was chosen as the Industrialization spot to start to build the new Turkish Republic. A 5.000 years old city, chosen as the place to celebrate an economic congress that would be an economical progress for a forthcoming country. It was September the 9th, 1927, and the whole city lived a revival through the excitement felt for a congress held on the ashes of a big fire. This revival showed to the world, first with a bazaar held during the congress then a cross national one and eventually an international fair.
The congress was colored with an exhibition that day, the streets were home to numerous kinds of products from Anatolia: carpets, soaps, rolls of cloth, figs and grapes prepared to be exported. The congress had also determined the economical program of the Republic. At the end of the Congress, Mustafa Kemal stated:“The economics exhibition was very good. Repeat it every year. Such exhibitions on our lands help our economy to improve.
” Mustafa Kemal AtatürkExhibitions were held every year since then, but the journey originating from those weak exhibitions leading to bazaars, finally created the international ?zmir Fair in 1930, with Behçet Uz being elected as a member of the ?zmir Municipality. In 1931, Behçet Uz was elected mayor. The people of ?zmir who were familiar with exhibitions, held on every 9th of September welcomed a bazaar in Kordon Square in 1933. That year, adults paid 5 Kurus to see the bazaar, and products of 23 foreign, 150 Turkish firms were exhibited. Years passed and the fair had taken the role to set a course for the industry, trade and culture of the Turkish Republic.
It also became a public university and a cultural meeting point, where Greeks having left Izmir through exchange of population were allowed to freely enter the city to participate in the fair. A friendly hand of peace was thus getting the two sides together.Year by year, Izmir fair was improving, in 1938, lighting and gardening arrangements, next year, new restaurants were being run, people who had yet started to recover from poverty were coming out to have fun. In 1939, the Expansion came: ?zmir Fairground expanded with extra 60,000 sqm area. The Prime Minister Dr. Refik Saydam inaugurated the Fair, which 574 foreign companies, 27 governmental institutions and 333 local companies participated in.
When the Second World War approached to the Turkish border, Ismet Inönü succeeded in keeping the country out of the war through political strategies, whereas the Izmir fair was a common meeting point for opponent countries: In 1941, there was only a short distance between the armorial bearings of the United Kingdom and the swastika flag of Hitler's Germany. In 1942, the heavy atmosphere of the war would reflect on the fair. During the years of war the fair would not deserve to be defined as a "cross-national".After the two World Wars, changing times followed: Thanks to the fair, Izmir was again known as the little Paris for the Aegean region, and, although the import of many products was banned or limited, the Fair was recovering its international importance.
In 1960s, the USA participated the fair with 120 companies, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States of America sent congratulatory message for 29th ?zmir International Fair, which became an exhibition area of eastern and western (American – Russian) military forces, rockets and weapons. Within the years, more countries appeared in the Fair, like East Germany, Iraq, Iran and many others, creating an international concept that has been continued with the participation of foreign companies because of the globalization effect.?zmir International Fair’s OrganizationTo show the importance of the 2011’s fair, we will show it the best way to understand its dimension, by showing the way an event like this is organized.
First we will get familiar with the army of workers who prepare and manage everything to have things ready and to make the fair run smoothly. We will see them working and solving the problems they might find while preparing the fair, from the Security Department, the PR Team, the Marketing Team, the protocol responsible to the Technical Department, everyone involved in the successful end of a fair like this.We will also show the reader the Place where the fair is organized: The International ?zmir Fair Center has several flexible multi-facet conference rooms and seminar halls that present a perfect atmosphere for International Fair and various specialized fairs, as well as other open house programs. For September the 8th the International ?zmir Fair Center team will have left no stone unturned to meet the needs of customers - exhibitors and visitors. The venue will be designed to meet the latest market needs, providing the most convenient and flexible spaces for hosting indoor as well as outdoor events. It is their duty to have everything ready at the fair center for the people to get every kind of services and enjoy comfort while visiting the fair.
We will discover everything that happens at the ?zmir Fair Complex, a contemporary expo area that stands among similar complexes around the world. Inside: ?zmir International Fair will show the way it meets all professional and technical needs of an exposition complex, and has a strong and significant architectural approach regarding the topographical, natural and climatic inputs of the place. Audience will watch how all the ?ZFA? workers, work together before the fair begins and while it is going on to assure there is no error while the fair takes place. Study will show how they take care of how all the facilities must work properly and with no mistake: the many renowned hotels which are 5 to 10 minutes from the Fair Center, the large parking lots for the private vehicles, the high speed internet services, onsite catering, 24*7 power supply and public telephone booths, the participants needs, the public needs, etc.
A huge number of variables that need to run smoothly and, after 80 years, they still do.Behçet Uz"The fair started by Behçet Uz has been an essential gain for ?zmir. This is not only a contribution limited to the "Culture Park". This is a project coinciding with the desire of the young Republic to enter the global markets, to become integrated into Europe and to produce up to the European standards. In this sense, the ?zmir international fair has been a gate way to the outer world."Ahmet Piristina ?zmir Büyük?ehir Bld.
B?kThe other important pillar for our essay is Behçet Uz, the creator of ?zmir International Fair. He was born in 1893 in Denizli. He graduated from the Istanbul Faculty of Medicine and worked as a pediatrician in ?zmir. During the 1930s, he was ?zmir Mayor for 10 years and later served as Ministry of Health and Ministry of Commerce.Behçet Uz, was a man of vision who devoted his life to ?zmir.
He created a competitive fair and a city out of a burnt out and ruined ?zmir. Inspired from a model invented by the young soviets, Behçet Uz was planning to create a Culture Park in the 30ies which will also function as a University where the Great Fire of Smyrna had taken place. This fire, destroyed much of the port city of Smyrna in September 1922, four days after the Turkish forces regained control of the city, and eye-witness reports state that the fire began on 13th of September and lasted for several days. After Uz’s vision and a lot of hard work, on September 1st, 1936, the almost hopeless fire wreckage was replaced by a "Culture Park" with exhibition stands, a funfair, theatre halls and newly planted trees already starting to grow. The government was giving all its support to maintain participation from more countries and firms to the fair. The fair was making a good impression with its circus, funfair, operetta and the first products of industrialization, although still at the crawling stages.
The fair became a gate to the West, making true Uz's dreams.Behçet Uz loved ?zmir like a father loved his son. He had founded a hospital for children and worked hard for the formation of the Society for the Protection of Children. He had done his best to exterminate tuberculosis. He was married and had 5 children, but ?zmir was his real passion.
When he lost his daughter, he was struck with pain. He was a doctor but had failed to heal his daughter, who caught the disease during the years he worked for the fair. His wife would later say: "We sacrificed our daughter to ?zmir and the fair." He continued working for ?zmir, and in the 70ies, Behçet Uz, was still involved with the fair.
Every morning, at 7.00 am, he was going to the fairground and spending hours there, wandering around the park he had created and his own statue, until the 19th of May, 1986, when Behçet Uz died.?zmir City?zmir, known as the “Pearl of Aegean Sea,” lies on the west coast of Turkey, right in the heart of Turkish-Aegean culture. ?zmir is the third largest city in Turkey and its port is second only to Istanbul. It lies at the centre of the most important land, air and sea communication network in the Aegean region, and is known as one of Turkey’s major commercial and trading hubs, although it is also known for its spectacular culture and climate.
For many years ?zmir has enjoyed a reputation for its cosmopolitan city culture thanks, in part, to the ?zmir International Fair, which attracts over a million foreign and native visitors each year. The ?zmir Cultural Centre hosts opera and ballet performances as well as musical concerts. International ?zmir Festival, the most prominent entertainment event in ?zmir begins in mid-June and continues to mid-July. World-class performers-soloists and virtuosos, orchestras, dance companies, rock and jazz groups give recitals and present performances in ?zmir.The essay will show how the first settlement in ?zmir, which is described by the history writer, Plinius as the light of Asia dates back to 3000 B.C.
Lelegians lived in Bayrakly in 2000 B.C. Having come from Ephesus in the 12th century the Ionians settled around the modern district of Halkapynar to the south of Bayrakly and founded a town called Navlakhon. The city was known as Symrna in those times, becoming an important trade colony, ?zmir ran over its walls due to its increasing population. ?zmir is home to many fascinating historical and archaeological sites, which showcase the enduring culture of the region. The city is home to an ancient agora and the Kadifekale Castle perches above it.
Nearby are the spectacular ruins of ancient Ephesus which include the remains of the Temple of Artemis, one of the original Seven Wonders of the World. The area is home to many historically significant locations for the world’s major religions. Sites such as the Grotto of the Seven Sleepers, the Basilica of Saint John and the House of the Virgin Mary have promoted the growth of faith tourism in the area.Inside: ?zmir International Fair will show the whole soul of this legendary fair. Through these situations, the essay will take readers for a comprehensive hour-long visit to the history and present day reality of the ?zmir International Fair, and will show them, for the first time, both its importance, the inner history as well as the secrets that the Fair still hides, not to mention the organization system and human strategies which guarantee its complex working.Inside: ?zmir International Fair will allow the readers to understand and learn the importance of the oldest tradeshow in Turkey and the amount of work performed to keep it as a reference for more than 80 years.
