The 2024 Annual Report of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, produced in collaboration with the Politecnico di Milano, was presented today at the Teatro Grassi in Milan. It is an important and eloquent document that takes stock not only of the event, but also of all that is happening around it, making Milan a key crossroads for the industry worldwide. And which in 2024 generated an induced income, for the city and the entire metropolitan area, of 275MLN euros (+13.7% compared to 2023).
For the opening of the works, the sociologist Charles Landry, one of the leading international experts on creative cities, was invited. In a short and engaging lectio magistralis, he highlighted a series of elements that lead to a reflection on the different aspects that make up the world of design: perspectives, cultures, exchanges, combinations, interconnections. An expanded vision that suggests a reconfiguration of the system towards an increasingly open language capable of telling all that Milan does for the world of design, rather than reiterating Milan’s long-established role in the world of design.
This Annual Report is complex: 37 data holders and 86 sources were involved, 10 working tables were organized with 130 stakeholders, as well as 530 field observations. The result of this research, the first to be carried out on such a scale, is the document (Eco) Sistema Design Milano, the first chapter of a broader project conceived and promoted by the Salone del Mobile, with the scientific support of the Politecnico di Milano: a permanent observatory to know, for the first time on a database, the dimensions and dynamics of an event that has become an element of recognition and attraction for the city, Capital of Design. A qualification that is not limited to the week of the fair, but extends throughout the year.
The focus is, of course, on the presence of design in the area, mapping design-related businesses and professionals, highlighting sometimes unexpected data: 12 percent of businesses are run by young people, 13.7 percent by foreigners, and 27.2 percent by women (higher than the European average of 24 percent). Divided into 8 chapters, more than 260 pages and more than 90 graphs, the report outlines the guidelines that will guide the creation of the first permanent Observatory of the Salone, analyzes performance indicators and allows us to draw a picture of evolution.
The goals are ambitious: to create a dynamic image of the many aspects of the event, but also to start planning its future by studying the choices of the visitors – an example: thanks to the analysis of data traffic through cell phone antennas, it is possible to understand which areas of the city involved in the Fuorisalone “work” best. This is the starting point for a general reflection, where numbers can help to build more concrete projects and not to act “from the gut”, as is often the case in the furniture sector.
Another important fact of this work is that the resulting document is meant to be shared: a research that aims to build better quality, sustainability, governance for the whole territory. With the ultimate goal of giving it more meaning and value. Because, as Landry said in his presentation, “the problem is not to ask how much culture costs; it is to ask how much it costs not to value it”.
“The aim of this report is to share data and interpretations, at the service of all citizens, to inform with greater awareness the strategies that must guide the future, starting today,” says Maria Porro, President of Salone del Mobile.Milano. “The results of this research provide a first physiognomy of a vital ecosystem that, in its complementarity and synergy with the territory, distinguishes what happens every April in Milan from what happens in other fairs and design weeks around the world. The main challenge – to be faced by the city in all its instances – is to maintain the event’s attractiveness, maintaining the high quality of the offer and, at the same time, resolving those latent criticalities that characterize events of this magnitude.”
“After the pandemic, the Salone faced more than one challenge”, continues Porro, “the most important one was to boost the internationalization processes. We saw the result in April, when Milan once again became an intercontinental stage, thanks to a Salone that exceeded all expectations in terms of visitor numbers: a milestone, but also a point of departure, achieved thanks to the commitment of the wood furniture industrial supply chain, which relies on the event every year. In a context of market instability and geopolitical crises, even our ecosystem, in order to look to the future, must maintain its own balance, with a sharing of objectives between public and private actors, and a strategy of “if, yes” instead of “no, because”, as Landry suggested in his speech. Our report is a tool designed to be made available to all the city’s decision-makers, with whom we want to reflect and act together to better inform tomorrow.”
