The 2^nd International Furnishings Innovation Fair (Chengdu) ("IFIF") opened in Chengdu Furniture Industrial Park on November 25. The event took the lead in promoting innovative technologies and concepts for the furniture industry including the Cloud City marketing platform, creating a model for an Internet of Things (IoT) Innovation Fair.

The 2nd International Furniture Innovation Fair (Chengdu) opens, attracting a large number of buyers

IFIF, co-organized by the Sichuan Provincial Investment Promotion Bureau, the Sichuan Provincial Federation of Industry and Commerce, the Guangzhou Office of the Sichuan Provincial People's Government and the China Furniture & Decoration Chamber of Commerce, was held from November 25^th to November 29^th. The event, which brought together more than 2,000 exhibitors from around the world, was a showcase for a variety of product demonstrations, promotions, forums and lectures taking place in six pavilions. The show also attracted buyers with the affordable prices of the wares on display. Traffic and turnover on the first day exceeded the numbers of any day of the first year's event.

The 2^nd IFIF, in addition to serving as a venue for the promotion of the exhibitors' furniture and decorative products, proved to be a staging ground for more technological innovations, leading a new round of smart changes across the furniture market. Zhai Dongliang, chairman of the Innovation Fair Club and director of Heungkong Group, said that the biannual fair aims to build an international display and trading platform for the furniture industry and create a permanent, professional-level furniture exhibition venue within Chengdu Furniture Industrial Park. "As an innovation-oriented event, the 2^nd IFIF can be expected to take the lead in adopting mobile web technologies, the Cloud City concept, the integration of online and offline platforms as well as IoT technology, while promoting a trading platform specifically for original designs. The sum of these transformative actions will allow the new and cutting-edge technologies and concepts to benefit the industry as well as numerous merchants and families."

The Cloud City system formally went live at the 2^nd IFIF. Products on display were simultaneously showcased on the Cloud City platform, in a configuration that mimicked the layout of the exhibition halls, assuring a seamless integration of the presentation of the products both online and offline. An extensive range of features including every product having a unique product code across all vendors, as well as QR code-based shopping in addition to promotional events, advertising, traceability and cross marketing, enabled the synchronization of online and offline product displays as well as synergy between online and offline resources.

Zhang Chuanxi, honorary chairman of IFIF and executive president of the China Furniture & Decoration Chamber of Commerce, said in his speech that the 2^nd IFIF creates a new "furniture IoT ecosystem" and is expected to rewrite the landscape that is China's furniture industry. Lu Qifeng, secretary general of IFIF and assistant general manager at Heungkong Group, said, "With the arrival of the IoT era in the furniture industry, we will drive the transformation of the industry with technological innovations, opening the door to new and unprecedented opportunities."

The fair received extensive positive feedback from the Chinese branches and representatives of chambers of commerce worldwide. Daniel Miller, manager at China-Britain Business Council Southwest China, said that the 2^nd IFIF's adoption of innovative technologies including the Cloud City platform and advanced IoT is good news for companies outsideChina and will help British institutions to quickly enter the Chinese market.

The fair is expected to serve as a catalyst for the transformation of Chengdu Furniture Industrial Park, as well as for the next stage of development across the entire industry and its service chains. Chen Zhi, deputy district head of the People's Government of Xindu District, said that Chengdu Furniture Industrial Park will become much more actively engaged in the commercial and financial aspects of the industry. The park plans to establish six centers of activity, the three key ones being a center for creative design and research, a center for raw materials purchasing and processing as well as a center for intelligent manufacturing and processing, in a move to promote innovative transformation through multi-faceted integration.

(Source：prnewswire.com）