A First-Timer’s Guide to Make the Most of Marmomac

If this is your first time at Marmomac, here’s the one thing worth knowing before you land in Verona: it isn’t a fair you casually wander through.

There are thousands of exhibitors, multiple halls, and four very full days. If you’re visiting for the first time without a plan, you can easily spend most of your time walking around and very little of it having conversations that are actually useful to you.

The goal isn’t to see everything. You can’t. The goal is to know what matters to you before you get there.

1. Build Your Route Before You Land

Start by looking through the fair’s digital exhibitor and product resources and figuring out which companies and product categories are actually relevant to your project.

Then look at where they’re located.

It sounds obvious, but it makes a difference. You don’t want to spend half your day walking from one end of the fair to the other because you didn’t realise that the three suppliers you wanted to meet were all in the same area. The official Marmomac app has indoor navigation built in for exactly this reason.

Don’t build your schedule around seeing every booth. Build it around the conversations you actually need to have.

2. Prioritize by Hall

Once you know who you want to see, group your priorities by hall.

Spend your time in one area before moving on to the next instead of repeatedly crossing the exhibition grounds. You could have fifty quick introductions, or you could have ten conversations where you actually learn something useful about a supplier, their materials, their capabilities, and whether they’re right for your project.

I’d take the ten conversations.

3. Book the Important Meetings in Advance

If there is a supplier you genuinely want to evaluate, book a meeting.

The people you want to speak to may be busy for most of the day, especially during the busiest hours. Walking up to a booth and hoping the right person happens to be free is not exactly a strategy.

An appointment also gives the supplier time to prepare. They can have the right samples ready, pull together technical information, discuss pricing in the context of your project, and come prepared for the questions you actually have.

This becomes even more important when you’re talking about substantial quantities.

4. Pace Yourself

Four days on an exhibition floor is a lot.

Wear comfortable shoes. Carry less than you think you’ll need. Take actual breaks. And don’t schedule every single minute of every single day.

Some of the best conversations at a trade fair happen because you have enough time to stop at something you weren’t expecting to see, ask one more question, or spend an extra fifteen minutes talking to someone who turns out to be exactly the person you needed to meet.

Leave room for that.

5. Don’t Ignore the Exhibitions

The curated exhibitions at Marmomac aren’t just decoration between the commercial halls.

They’re one of the places where you can see what architects and designers are thinking about natural stone, how they’re using it, and what ideas are starting to emerge around the material. Especially if it’s your first time at Marmomac, installations like the ones we covered in what to see at Marmomac 2026 are worth the extra half hour.

And sometimes, those ideas will change the way you look at the products and suppliers you’re seeing elsewhere at the fair.

So make time for them. Not because you need another thing to check off your list, but because you’re already there. You might as well see what people are doing with the material beyond selling it.

6. Bring the Right Information

If you’re evaluating suppliers, bring whatever information you already have about your project:

• Project specifications
• Approximate quantities
• Required finishes
• Target delivery dates
• Shipping destination
• Drawings or reference images, where useful
• Questions about quality control and production

You don’t need to have the entire project figured out before you walk into a booth.

But the more concrete you can be about what you need, the more useful the conversation will be. Instead of asking, “What can you offer us?”, you can ask questions that actually help you decide whether this supplier can work for your project.

First Time at Marmomac: Make Your 4 Days Count

Marmomac rewards preparation.

Know who you want to meet. Get clear on what you need to learn. Map out which halls you need to be in.

But don’t plan every second. Leave some room to discover something you weren’t looking for.

And if Sarhan is on your list, arrange your meeting before the halls open. That way, we can prepare the right samples and information for your project.