Shanghai hosts Global Exhibition CEO Summit 2025

Shanghai hosted a total of 896 exhibitions in 2024, covering a combined exhibition area of 19.22 million square meters, Zhu Min, director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, announced on June 19.

Zhu made the remarks at the opening ceremony of the two-day Global Exhibition CEO Shanghai Summit 2025, one of the three major global conferences in the exhibition industry.

According to Zhu, international exhibitions accounted for 81.62 percent of the total exhibition area, and the number of exhibitions exceeding 100,000 square meters in size reached a record high.

The summit was held at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai).

Zhu also noted that Shanghai is currently home to more than 40 exhibitions approved by the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry (UFI), the highest number among major exhibition cities worldwide.

He added that Shanghai will continue to innovate and enhance its capabilities as a global hub for the exhibition industry.

Chris Skeith, chief executive officer of UFI, lauded the strong recovery of the global exhibition sector in 2024 during his remarks at the summit's opening.

According to Skeith, a total of 32,000 exhibitions were held worldwide last year, occupying a rented area of 143.7 million square meters.

China led the global exhibition market, accounting for 31.2 percent of the total venue capacity, followed by the United States (14.1 percent) and Germany (7.3 percent).

Themed "Driving Sustainable Development Through Exhibition Innovation", the summit gathered more than 300 participants, including senior executives from leading international exhibition groups and organizations from countries and regions such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and Saudi Arabia, as well as representatives from Chinese regulatory authorities, trade associations, and exhibition enterprises.