We're getting ever closer to the 23rd Franchising & Trade to be held 17-20 October 2008 in Fieramilano's Rho trade fair complex, and applications from all categories of the franchising world are still coming in. There will be many well-established or new fashion brands at Franchising & Trade since the fashion industry was one of the first to appreciate franchising's potential. These include Never Without You, a company set up in 2003 by four friends – Francesco Totti, Ilary Blasi, Candido Monacelli and Isabella Cozzi. Never Without You presents a informal total look, finely-detailed casual fashions combining style and trendiness. The brand already has a retail outlet in China. Other participants are Robe di Kappa and Superga, which have over the past few years developed a single-brand franchising scheme encompassing both brands, with 70 stores in Italy. Franchising's fast growth in the tourism sector – a very competitive, complex market in which franchises enable small enterprises to arm themselves with the necessary know-how and technology – is seen at Franchising & Trade in the shape of Frigerio Viaggi and a few new entries such as Globis Vacanze and Baia di Luna Viaggi. Even a big name brand like Buffetti chooses Franchising & Trade as the place to expand its store network. Buffetti has 150 years' experience and over 900 franchise shops selling office supplies and services. There will also be unusual, intriguing offers, such as those from the gaming industry, a growing market in Italy: Vulcano della Fortuna is a solid brand of versatile, innovative gaming clubs, which in 2007 already had 200 branded clubs (136 in Germany and 50 in Croatia), while Batiaca stores sell board games and mechanical puzzles.

This year's great new feature for the trade is already active and online: the Matching Program. Fiera Milano Expocts tested this unique service – with great success – at BIT, the International Tourism Exchange, and now uses it for the first time on an international level at Italy's leading franchising fair. The Matching Program is designed to facilitate and generate new business. It permits people interested in becoming a franchisee to plan their business appointments well in advance of the show on the basis of their particular business necessities. Simply by pre-registering on the show’s website visitors will be sent by e-mail a username and password for accessing Matching Program services. Visitors can plan their show visit on the basis of three characteristics: the product category in which the visitor would like to be a franchisee; preferred geographic area (region and town); amount the potential franchisee intends to invest. This information will be cross-checked against offers from exhibitors who loaded their profile into the Matching Program. The names of potential franchisees who match exhibitors' prerequisites will be passed on to registered companies, which will therefore be able to contact the potential franchisees during or after the show, just as each exhibiting company's franchisee requests will be visible on Matching Program after the show. «Thanks to the Matching Program - says Antonio Fossati, md of RDS Consulting, which helps Fiera Milano Expocts organise F&T - the fair overcomes the space/time limits of its location in the Rho exhibition halls and goes beyond the four days of the show».  It should be remembered that the Matching Program also offers the opportunity of receiving news about the fair's events from the organisers in the months before F&T opens, almost like a permanent direct line with the organisers. And there's more: registered visitors enjoy a whole range of benefits as dedicated ticket offices where they receive a print-out of their appointments and a map of the location in the fair of the exhibitors they wish to meet, plus discounted tickets. The Matching Program offers an ideal opportunity of using a state-of-the-art program to join an ideal franchising network without moving from your desk, a way of beginning to build the contacts that may launch your career as a franchisee.