Gotland stand

“The local is a very strong driving force”.

In January 2023, Almi Gotland organized a joint stand together with 7 Gotland companies. Linus Atterby of Almi Företagspartner Gotland AB explains more about the initiative here.

Tell us about your stand at the fair!
During Formex, Almi Gotland (through the project Gotland Goes Global which is a regional project financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth and Region Gotland) organized a joint stand for 7 Gotland companies. The collective name was Gotlandsmontern but the focus was on the individual brands where we wanted to showcase a wide range of Gotland companies in the segments “Lifestyle living” and “Scandinavian Living & dining”.

What prompted you at Almi to take this initiative?
Within the project Gotland Goes Global, we conducted a dialog with companies and their needs and wishes to find more opportunities to reach new markets. So the idea came from the companies themselves and we put out an application where we got about 15 companies that through a selection process became the 7 companies that appeared in the stand.

What advantages do you see in having several companies on the same stand?
There are great collaborative advantages in being able to promote each other’s products in a joint exhibition! At the same time, it generated a lot of interest and the companies benefited from each other in terms of planning, transportation and staffing the stand.

What kind of feedback have you received?
Very positive and fun attention! Most importantly, the companies reached a large number of stakeholders. Then we are very happy that the initiative was recognized by Stefan Nilsson, Trendstefan, who said, “The local is a very strong driving force and often it is small-scale and quite sustainable. I’m very impressed with the way the exhibitors from Gotland have been brought together in a common stand in the A-hall, because it’s built on the same feeling. The local is something that interests us when we make these store visits.”

The companies participating in the Gotland Fair were:
Hippstory
Pettersson and Munthe
LenaBlum
fire blue
Ringvide
Gustaf & Linnea
VÅGA VÅGA