Cosmoprof Bologna ran from 20^th to 23^rd of March 2015 in Bologna Italy. This leading industry event has now been running for 48 years and represents global thought leaders from the professional beauty sector.

Various sectors of the beauty industry are represented: perfumery and cosmetics, natural health, packaging and contract manufacturing, beauty salon and spa, hair and nails.

 It is a very impressive expo with exhibitors from all over the world including North America, Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, Oceania.

The majority of equipment distributors and manufacturers were from Italy with a few other European and Asian companies. I spent a lot of time with different manufacturers discussing new technology, training and service. It reinforced the quality of equipment, training and service that Spectrum offer to the market in Australia but also provided new strategies on how we can continually refine and improve our offering to our customers and partners.

 I met with partners and global industry leaders to discuss the industry, where it is moving, technology and industry best practices. There were a few key trends in popular technology in Europe including Shockwave technology, High Intensity Ultrasound (HIFU), Radio Frequency, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, and a number of technologies around body slimming (inverse Ultrasonic Osmosis, Cryolipolisis).

A number of these technologies and treatments have a really good fit with the Australian market. Spectrum have partnered with a leading Italian manufacturer and are working on manufacturing a new range of Spectrum products in Italy (watch this space for more). When we visited their extensive manufacturing facilities in Italy it also confirmed that our other manufacturing facilities and partners were operating at best practice.

248,000 visitors attended the event (+20% compared to 2014), and among them 79,000 came from abroad (+30% compared to 2014), to symbolize the international leadership of the event, which with its 2,493 exhibitors, of which 70% came from abroad, represents a unique business opportunity to companies and beauty professionals. 1,070 journalists, both from Italy and foreign countries, requested the press accreditation, together with 540 bloggers, over 100,000 followers and 2,200,000 contacts on social networks in the latest week.