Grazie, Bologna

Arrived home from Bologna on Friday.

Not for the first time, it took almost as long as the two-hour flight to escape the clutches of Heathrow.

Having circled the airport for ten minutes before the pilot was allowed to land, we had to wait 15 minutes for a jetty to become available so we could get off the plane.

We then had to stand for 75 minutes in the baggage hall before our luggage arrived so by the time I was reunited with my car in the long stay car park the Friday rush hour was upon us, which meant a long, slow crawl around the M25.

But back to Bologna. The last time I visited the city, in September 2015, it was hot and sunny. Too hot, actually. Even the 15-minute walk from hotel to conference centre was a bit of an ordeal.

This being May I anticipated plenty of spring sunshine but without the baking heat.

In fact, given the awful weather we’ve had at home, it was a significant factor when I agreed to speak at TabExpo 2023, a leading tobacco trade exhibition.

Instead, apart from a few sunny intervals, the weather was much like here - warmer but stubbornly overcast and wet, with the rain particularly heavy on Wednesday.

Fortunately, a feature of central Bologna are the distinctive porticos (arched covered walkways) that provide shelter from the rain as well as protection from the sun.

I had assumed this was deliberate but it seems they were originally built in medieval times as a means of increasing the size of a building by extending the upper floors over the public walkway below.

The practice was copied by other cities until it was outlawed in many jurisdictions because the construction of pillars or columns to bear the weight of the extended upper floors was considered an encroachment on to public land.

Even in Bologna there are strict regulations attached to porticos but as that includes maintenance much of the centuries old architecture has survived, giving the city its unique appearance.

In contrast the BolognaFiere exhibition centre, in the business district of the city, could be anywhere.

Like most exhibition centres it is functional, utilitarian, but otherwise nondescript.

Inside the large halls provide a blank canvas for exhibitors but despite that one trade fair is very much like another - apart from their size, perhaps.

Exhibitors at TabExpo ranged from manufacturers to supply chain, all showcasing their products and services.

Innovation was a major theme, demonstrating how the tobacco industry is moving towards harm reduction. Chinese companies seemed to be particularly well represented.

Alongside the exhibition, at one end of the hall, an area had been set aside for the TabExpo ‘congress’, a mini conference that took place over two half days.

I was one of four keynote speakers, added to which there were a couple of panels that addressed a specific issue. On Wednesday it was ‘Reducing the carbon imprint’, at which point I went in search of a cup of coffee.

I won’t bore you with the speech I gave because regular readers will have heard the core message - about the need to defend smoking, and smokers - a thousand times.

I even recycled a couple of anecdotes direct from this blog.

The first recalled my visit to the Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum (GTNF) in Bologna in 2015:

On a coach to the closing reception at the Enzo Ferrari Museum in Modena I sat beside a very nice American who has spent 20 years testing smoking cessation products including patches and, most recently, electronic cigarettes.

He told me he gave up smoking around the same time he began testing alternative nicotine products, and I gathered that he saw it as his duty to improve public health and help others quit as well.

We chatted amiably throughout the 30-minute journey. I was interested to know more about his work but when it came to explaining what I did he was polite but clearly found it bizarre that anyone would defend the right to smoke.

I didn’t identify him but another speaker, who was on the Thursday panel, later told me, “I think I know who that was. It was a friend of mine, Mitch.”

The name certainly rang a bell. Thank goodness I was nice about him!

Anyway, I followed that anecdote with an observation and another story, also lifted from this blog:

Today it’s clear that I'm on borrowed time when it comes to being invited to speak at events such as this and GTNF.

In fact, at last year's GTNF conference in Washington DC, one of the first speakers actually got a round of applause when he told the audience it was six years since he'd successfully quit smoking.

Think about that. A keynote speaker at a tobacco industry event was applauded for having stopped smoking. For a moment it felt like I'd stumbled into a meeting of Addicts Anonymous.

If I was hoping for a laugh I was disappointed, but tobacco industry audiences are a tough crowd, especially if you’re defending the right to smoke.

Since I arrived home I’ve had an email from the organisers of TabExpo inviting feedback.

As it happens I do have a few thoughts, mostly to do with promotion.

The event, for example, was almost invisible on social media, unlike, say, Vape Expo UK which is taking place in Birmingham this weekend.

Personally I find this a bit frustrating because, if you agree to speak at an event, you want it to be well publicised.

I did my bit - here and on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - but it all went a bit under the radar.

That said, I did enjoy the trip, even if the weather wasn’t great. The food, in particular, was delicious.

It was nice, too, to catch up with some familiar faces.

And to the local Italians, especially the staff at my hotel, who could not have been more helpful or friendly, I have one word:

“Grazie”.

Below: TabExpo 2023 at BolognaFiere