PARIS — One of the world's largest food-product exhibitions in the country is expanding even further this year.
SIAL Paris 2008, scheduled Oct. 19-23 at the Paris-Nord Villepont Exhibition Center here, will include several new features showcasing products and technology.
The new Retail World section of the exhibition will encompass four areas, including one that focuses on innovation retail formats. Eight retailers from around the world will be showcased in that area, called “Retail Vision.” They are Jungle Jim's International Market (U.S.), Metro (Germany), Eroski (Spain), Tesco (United Kingdom), Carrefour (China), SAQ (Canada), Géant de Clermont-Ferrand (France) and Deli Traiteur (Belgium).
The Retail Vision section will include a technology demonstration by Berkeley, Calif.-based StoreXperience, which will showcase a personalized, in-store marketing system using customers' cell phones.
The Retail World area will also feature the SIAL d'Or Awards, which recognize new and innovative products from around the world that are commercially successful. A jury of industry journalists from 29 different countries nominated products for the awards earlier this year at the SIAL China conference in Shanghai and selected nine finalists for the Global SIAL d'Or Grand Prize.
From the U.S., Anheuser-Busch's Budweiser & Clamato Chelada was selected as one of the category winners to compete for the Grand Prize. Kraft's Oscar Mayer Deli Creation Sandwich Melts was the winner of the U.S. SIAL d'Or by virtue of receiving the most votes of any U.S. product in the May competition.
SN participated in the jury.
This year's SIAL Paris is expected to include 5,500 exhibitors, a 4% increase over the 2006 exhibit. The event takes place every two years. In 2006, SIAL Paris attracted about 145,000 visitors from 191 countries.
