By mid-year, Veletrhy Brno wants to have clarity about the construction of the pavilion

Brno - By the middle of next year, Veletrhy Brno aims to have clarity on how and when to build a new pavilion. Due to the lack of exhibition space for the engineering fair and the Techagro fair, they are losing 20-30 million crowns annually, as they cannot meet the demand from companies and have to turn some away. The hall should ideally be completed in 2019 and should serve multifunctionally for sports and cultural events, Jiří Kuliš, the general director, said today at a press conference.

"We are missing 5,000 square meters, the hall will also be that big. We need to discuss with the city as a shareholder during the first half of the year, and by mid-year we want to have a clear plan," Kuliš said. The mobile stands are expected to have a capacity of 7,000 for standing visitors and 5,000 for seated visitors, and they will be designed in such a way that the ratio can be partially changed.

The company lacks a pavilion after having vacated pavilion D in previous years, which currently houses the VIDA! science center. "We are informally referring to this as preparing a new pavilion D. It should involve the revitalization of pavilion C, to which we would additionally build. The city supports this idea," Kuliš said. According to him, the costs should range between 400 and 500 million crowns, which the company intends to cover from its own budget and loans.

Veletrhy is thinking about the new pavilion at a time when it is performing very well economically. It has been profitable for several consecutive years, and this year's profit will be two to three times higher than planned. "The years 2018 and 2019 also look very favorable. Techagro is sold out for next year, and the engineering fair is pre-reserved," Kuliš said. The exhibition grounds are also significantly utilized by conferences and events of large companies, which are practically invisible to the public at first glance. "Thanks to this, the coming years could end very well," Kuliš said.

In addition to the two largest fairs, other smaller ones are also doing well. "IDET has revived again after years, and the National Economic Exhibition of Animals was very successful, which we should have called more international," Kuliš noted.

Next year, Veletrhy is also preparing to celebrate two anniversaries. It has been 90 years since the exhibition grounds began operations, and 60 years since the first engineering fair was held. The company plans to commemorate primarily the second anniversary. It is organizing a competition for a graphic visual that aims to recall the posters from the best designers of the past, which invited people to the fair annually and won awards for designers in London. "Thanks to the engineering fair, Brno began to be called the exhibition city, and within the limits of the then regime, it became the cosmopolitan metropolis that it still is today," Kuliš said. At the same time, he wants to remind the history of that fair with the best historical exhibits from companies that regularly participate. "There are more than ten of them," Kuliš said.

An exhibition titled Re:public 1918-2018 will also open on May 26 at the exhibition grounds, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia. The event is being prepared by an agency selected by the city and will open coincidentally on the day when President T. G. Masaryk inaugurated the Contemporary Culture Exhibition 90 years ago.