Meeting Centre of the Industry - summary of the STONE 2022 fair

From 23 to 25 November, nearly 100 exhibitors from Poland, Belgium, Brazil, China, Bulgaria, France, Spain, India, Lithuania, Germany, Portugal, Sweden, the UK and Italy presented their flagship offer, while the number of professionals who visited the exhibition exceeded two thousand. 

By participating in the Stone fair, exhibitors established new business contacts, gained valuable experience and were able to expand their knowledge of industry development.

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STONE is the traditional venue for the presentation of market launches, prepared by manufacturers exclusively for the fair. Exhibitors presented inspiring displays of natural stone, machinery and equipment for stone cutting and processing, specialised transport equipment, as well as tools and abrasive materials. Moreover, three STONE exhibitors who most spectacularly reconciled their stand vision with the marketing strategy of their company were awarded the Acanthus Aureus prize. Among the companies distinguished, the statuette was received by representatives of the following companies: CERAMIKA PARADYŻ, GRANIT - COLOR and HM GRANITOS POLSKA.

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BEAUTY enchanted in stone

No one needs to be convinced that stone is not only used in utilitarian products, but is also the foundation for many significant architectural and artistic projects. The evidence that stone can be the best carrier of important ideas was, for example, provided by the zone of interactive demonstrations in the manual processing of stone. For the first time at the Stone fair, a team TOURNAMENT OF REGIONS was organised. Representatives of three regions of Poland took part in the competition for professional skills: LOWER SILESIA, CENTRAL POLAND and ŚWIĘTKOKRZYSKIE, who struggled to work with Polish limestone and sandstone, resulting in a joint public utility project - a bench. For the organisers of the STONE fair, each team was a winner.

In addition, visitors also had the opportunity to visit the exhibition of works prepared by students of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków during the next edition of “RDZEŃ” International Symposium on Stone Sculpture .

In the special STONEWORKING demonstration and workshop zone, each stone professional had the opportunity to try out and test the advantages of innovative tools and materials in “working” conditions with their own hands, as well as to obtain additional valuable information directly from their manufacturers.

This year also saw the presence of LUBOSZ KARWAT Artisan Workshop, who has been running his mosaic studio for more than 15 years. At the Stone Fair, he not only presented a selection of mosaics from his latest collection, but also conducted a mosaic laying workshop, creating, together with the participants, the “IGLICA” - the symbol of Poznań International Fair.

The entire STONE fair was complemented by the unique natural stone exhibition of the EGA GROUP - the STONE Fair Partner, which constantly seeks and introduces new and often unique natural materials into its offer. The range of various surface treatments presented captivated visitors with their uniqueness and exceptionality, even in their simplest form.

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STONE MERYTORYCZNIE. Konferencje, prezentacje, konsultacje

The stage in Hall 7A and the events in the conference rooms were filled with lectures and debates. In the rapidly changing environment, up-to-date knowledge on the use of stone in architecture, its technical specifications, the applications of petrographic research as a tool to support contemporary construction and architecture and structural solutions for granite façades is extremely important. This topic was addressed in the “STONE DEBATE”. The DEBATE partners, the Polish Stonemasons' Association, invited specialists from the Łukasiewicz Institute - IMBiGS to participate in the event. Other conference topics related to science included “Stone, Substance and Idea” - a lecture delivered by Dr Marcin Nosko (Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków) and “Natural Stone, Geology, Mining, Construction” which, in turn, were presented and discussed by speakers invited on behalf of the Polish Association of Stone Products Manufacturers. A special place in the STONE programme was devoted to the topic of stonemasonry in social media (“Stonemasonry in the 21st century in the social media perspective”), which is increasingly becoming a communication platform for the stonemasonry industry. How important they are was presented to us by Mr Tomasz Kos (Marmor Stone) who has been running social media campaigns for almost 10 years. These are just examples of events from the extremely extensive programme of the STONE 2022 fair.

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Already today, we would like to invite you to participate in the next edition of the STONE Stone Industry Fair to be held in autumn 2023 in Poznań.

More information on the fair can be found on www.targistone.pl.