UFI, The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, has named Fira Barcelona as the winner of the 2026 UFI Operations & Services Award.
The UFI Operations & Services Award recognises outstanding operational delivery in the exhibition industry, celebrating the teams behind the scenes that provide planning, clear coordination, smart resource management, and reliable execution when it matters most.
This year’s UFI Operations & Services Award topic was “Operational Excellence Under Pressure”. It aimed to recognise organisations that planned for complex delivery conditions, managed resources effectively, coordinated teams, suppliers, and stakeholders, maintained quality under peak pressure, and delivered safe, reliable outcomes.
Constantí Serrallonga, Fira de Barcelona General Manager, comments: “This award is a significant recognition for Fira de Barcelona.
It acknowledges our longstanding commitment to operational excellence and developing an operating model capable of meeting the demands and standards of the world’s leading organizers in terms of safety and efficiency.
It also strengthens our international position as a benchmark for world-class venues and services in the trade show and events industry, while inspiring us to continue raising the bar in everything we do.”
Stefan Eckert, UFI Operations & Services Working Group Chair, adds: “This year, we received a very strong set of entries. Fira Barcelona impressed the jury with its comprehensive and highly practical approach to operational excellence under pressure.
By turning the challenge of increasingly large, back-to-back events into a repeatable operational system, they demonstrated how careful planning, collaboration and continuous improvement can enable a venue to operate more efficiently and safely.
As we are always looking for best-practice examples from which the UFI community can learn, we felt this was a particularly strong and relevant case for our industry.”
The jury also congratulates this year’s Finalists: Dubai World Trade Centre and RX France.
Each year, the UFI Awards celebrate excellence in digital innovation, marketing, sustainable development, operations & services, people & culture, and industry partners. Selected projects from the UFI Awards are shared through UFI’s Best Practices Library, supporting knowledge sharing and helping exhibition professionals worldwide learn from the industry’s leading initiatives. Discover more at www.ufi.org/awards.
The 2026 UFI Award winners will be recognised at the 93rd UFI Global Congress, taking place from 2–5 November 2026 in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Further details on the recognition programme will be shared in due course. To learn more about the UFI Global Congress, please visit www.uficongress.org.
