LOS – The way up for craftsmen and entrepreneurs
“Are you a craftsman, an entrepreneur? Are you establishing your own company or have you already established one and you would like to expand the scope of your activities, increase turnover and revenue? Are you looking for ways of doing it? Here comes LOS! The new specialised trade exhibition organized in cooperation between the Chamber of Craft and Small Business of Slovenia and the Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre.” For a month, the organisers have been thus promoting the new event, which will take place between 2 and 5 June 2011 at the Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre under the slogan Heading up!.
LOS is an event where craftsmen and entrepreneurs will find everything required for the development of their company or craft in one place. At LOS, necessary information is provided, the synergy of all those present is exploited, and ideas are networked. Since every entrepreneur and every craftsman is also a consumer looking for fresh information, new products and services, LOS Fair will, with its specialised and also wide and content-rich exhibition sales section, fulfil its mission and offer the visitor an opportunity for purchasing required goods. Craftsmen and entrepreneurs will be able to feel the response of consumers, competitors, and particularly of potential partners. The Fair is open also to the general public.
As highlighted by Štefan Grosar, vice-President of the Chamber of Craft and Small Business of Slovenia and the President of its Management board, »LOS – Ljubljana Craft and Small Business Fair is aimed to provide their members, craftsmen and small entrepreneurs with an excellent opportunity for promotion and sale of their products and services also in the central Slovenian region. We are convinced that the beneficial and favourable exhibition conditions will attract many exhibitors, who will succeed and thus contribute to the strengthening of both, the crafts and the entire domestic economy, by making new business contacts. LOS is undoubtedly an excellent opportunity for all those seeking to find their future in their own entrepreneurship. The so-called Street of Crafts will present numerous attractive craft jobs, without which one cannot imagine the development of domestic economy. We thus want to point out the problems related to the lack of certain craft professions, and particularly to encourage young people and their parents to consider the possibility of deciding for a particular profession, which could assure a safe and profitable future. We at the Chamber of Craft and Small Business of Slovenia are firmly convinced that it is the crafts which, regardless of the current difficult business conditions and operations, brings profit and enables further business existence to a large number of Slovenians and, in addition to the above, decisively contributes also to the competitiveness of our economy”.
LOS – new specialised trade exhibition
The mission of the Fair is thus two-fold: to present and offer to the widest attending public the achievements – products and services – of craftsmen and entrepreneurs in Slovenia, and to provide the craftsmen and entrepreneurs with information and access to new business services and products, which they require for the development of their company or craft:
• new business contacts in Slovenia and abroad
• solutions for more efficient marketing of products and services from the field of craft and entrepreneurship
• how to improve efficiency of managing co-workers and increase quality of customer relations (CRM)
• presentation of accounting services and integral mobile operations
• design and landscaping of the business premises exterior and the surroundings
• more efficient organisation of the business premises interior
• energy efficiency and environmental protection
• increased efficiency of manufacture
• optimisation of logistics
• higher level of safety at work
• offer of attractive ideas for holidays and leisure
The business junction of the Fair presents institutions supporting the development of entrepreneurship in Slovenia; the counselling centre thus offers advice on tax counselling, how to apply for EU calls to tender, advice on labour and social law, technical regulations and use of standards, while the craftsmen and entrepreneurs present themselves with examples of good practices, etc. The Employment Service of Slovenia is participating at the Fair with its project Options and opportunities. In the spirit of its slogan Heading up!, the Fair is also to address the unemployed: all those, who present a referral issued by the Employment Service of Slovenia, can enter free-of-charge. The Fair will also have section for socialisation and relaxation and, for example, the culinary experience of the Prekmurje region.
The organisers extend the invitation for participation to all Sections of the Craft and Small Business Chamber of Slovenia: from transport, catering and tourism, food processing, wood processing, to glassworkers, stonecutters, graphic and paper processing, textile processing, metal processing, electricity and energy, mechatronics and robotics, plastic processing, construction, tinsmiths and roofers, to car services, hairdressers, jewellers, florists and gardeners, the section of trade, etc. All companies, whose activities are oriented towards the central Slovenian space, i.e. Ljubljana and its surroundings, and, last-but-not-least, those active over the entire territory of Slovenia, are also invited, added Iztok Bricl, MSc, Director of the Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre. »Let’s revitalise the rich fair tradition with a contemporary, innovative and varied development of the craft and small business activities in Slovenia. Knowledge and experience is on the side of both, let’s join them into an aorta, bringing a new and fresh fair pulse to Ljubljana.”
Ljubljana – a city of fairs
Why in Ljubljana? »Since our members have had the idea to organize a craft fair in Ljubljana for quite some time,« stated Dušan Krajnik, Secretary General of the Chamber of Craft and Small Business of Slovenia. »Ljubljana is the capital and many craftsmen and entrepreneurs desire to present themselves here. With all our recent demands for changes of the entrepreneurial environment in Slovenia, we would like to give a new boost to small businesses, which also explains the slogan of the Fair – Heading up!«
A considerable 30 percent of the members of the Chamber of Craft and Small Business of Slovenia come from central Slovenia, with Ljubljana as its centre. Ljubljana with its surroundings has the greatest purchasing power and excellent traffic connections. Crafts and entrepreneurship hold the longest tradition in the central Slovenia, and also boast with considerable development; that is why this part of Slovenia is entitled to the widest presentation of small businesses.
Iztok Bricl, MSc, Director of the Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre (GR) explains: “In its past, GR has hosted a great number of fairs, among them fashion fairs, fairs of teaching equipment, furniture, construction tools, gastronomy, tourism, skiing equipment, automobiles, electronics, themes related to healthy way of life – i.e. Nature-Health Fair, etc. In the recent years, approximately 20 such events which attract 300,000 visitors take place annually at GR. Good fairs continuously attract visitors from near and far and award the efforts of the organisers with their own success story. The Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre would like to continue these success stories and introduce new fairs, which will reflect the successful, innovative and creative endeavours in the field of economy and broader.«
Members of the Chamber of Craft and Small Business of Slovenia (OZS) have participated or still participate in numerous Fairs hosted by the Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre (GR). Caterers and food processing sector like to present themselves at the Gast Expo & Ice cream or Alpe−Adria: Tourism and Leisure Fair. Those from the section of electronics have presented themselves at the Electronics Fair, building experts at the Home Fair, those from the cosmetics industry have presented themselves and organized their own congresses as part of the Nature- Health Fair, and wood-processing experts participate at the Furniture Fair. A competition among tinsmiths and roofers also took place at GR, as did the great Auto Motor Show with the participation of the members of the vehicle service and repair section.
Short presentation of GR and OZS
The Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre has been operating as Events Centre Ljubljana since 1955. Numerous events have taken place at GR, from Slovenska popevka (Slovenian song contest), international sports events and established fairs, and also congresses in more recent years. With the 50th International Home Fair, the 20 multipurpose halls of GR were extended to include the neighbouring building of Slovenijales, now offering a total of over 21,000 square metres of exhibition surfaces.
The Chamber of Craft and Small Business of Slovenia (OZS) is a professional organisation linking craftsmen and entrepreneurs since 1969. It is a representative partner of the State or the Government. With its continuous endeavours, it strives to make the legislation and the supporting environment as friendly as possible towards crafts and entrepreneurship. In addition to the above, it is also important for the State to have a dialogue partner, who knows and represents small business and thus makes it easier for the Government to formulate its economic policy. OZS integrates its members in 30 professional sections and 2 committees, through which craftsmen resolve their professional issues. Currently, the organisation has over 52,000 members, of which approximately 80% are private entrepreneurs and 20% are legal entities. As a partner, the Chamber participates in various Fairs in the European Union and outside its borders.
More on the event available at
www.sejemlos.si.
