Story ID: 5040113ATP
Paris Show Organizers Set Sights On Youth
By: AIN Staff
Caption: 
Word Count: 237
While at first glance the 2013 Paris Air Show might look much the same as previous editions, it promises new wrinkles for attendees. This time around, the biennial gathering at Le Bourget Airport will focus on attracting young people into the aerospace workforce and on business-to-business opportunities, said the show’s new chairman and CEO, Emeric d’Arcimoles. Speaking at a show organizers’ news conference last Wednesday in Washington, D.C., d’Arcimoles lamented a seeming lack of interest in aerospace by young people. “We are facing a lack of technicians, engineers, workers and their educations, of course,” he said. In reaction, companies have decided to “spend a lot of money to convince the young generation to come and work for our industry.”

But managing director Gilles Fournier said that organizers must concentrate on convincing the younger generation to come work within the worldwide aerospace industry, and not just the French aerospace industry.

Airshow marketing director Nicolas Tran recalled that the 2011 show drew 2,113 exhibitors from 45 countries, attracting 151,000 trade visitors and 204,000 general public visitors. Noting that everything at the 50th exposition has been booked full since January, d’Arcimoles added that the show continues to expand at a rate of 4- to 5 percent a year and the organizers “don’t see the end of this [growth].”

The show will run from June 17 to 23, encompassing five business days and two public days.