Milan HOSTS the world
Host Milan challenges the definition of big, and then surpasses it. Gigantic or even overwhelming may be more adequate to describe the biannual trade gathering of the hospitality, restaurant, and catering event. Someone once told me that each trade hall was the equivalent size of the Melbourne Cricket Ground – and there’s 24 halls. That explains the suited men riding scooters and the deterioration from dress shoes to runners after day one of the event – but never for the Italians.
This year, 197,602 visitors attended the 40th edition of Host in Italy from 20 to 24 October, an increase of 24.3 per cent from the 2015 event. Thirty-eight per cent of attendees were international visitors, coming from 177 countries including, as Host media put it “particularly distant or unusual countries such as Australia”. A large cohort of Aussies could be seen – and heard – roaming the halls. Some came to do business and others to tick Host off their bucket list. This year, four Australian businesses called themselves exhibitors, including Cafetto, Maltra Foods, Imf Rosters, and Coffee Machine Technologies.
My initial goal was to see “everything” this show had to offer. I was eager and ready with notepad and pen in one hand and camera in the other. But after
