Opening Ceremony
IceFish 2014 commenced with the Opening Ceremony and the event was officially opened by the Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture, Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson, in the presence of the Mayor of Kópavogur, Ármann Ólafsson and the guest of honour, the President of Iceland, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson.

Overseas Attendance
Representatives from one of the UK's fish growth hubs, Grimsby, were at IceFish in the hope of drawing Icelandic investment. Some of the Icelandic firms who have already benefited from associations with fisheries organisations in the UK are IceFish exhibitors, Atlantic Fresh and Icelandic Seachill.

There was a significant number of overseas VIP guests in attendance at IceFish 2014 who came to Iceland to discover more about the technological break-throughs as well as receiving an insight into maximising by-waste fish products. These included large delegations from Norway, and other who were representing Namibia and Bangladesh.

Frenetic social media activity
2014 saw the launch of the official pages of IceFish on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube as well as the newly launched IceFish blog site.

This resulted in frenetic social media activity, particularly on Twitter, with followers providing and receiving the latest information and updates, plus engagement with other like-minded individuals across the commercial fisheries sector on a global scale.

Some of the trending tweets included that of the President of Iceland attending the opening ceremony, the Ministry of Fisheries delegation from Namibia who visited the Icelandic Fisheries Exhibition, and another was the image of leather boots made from cod skin.

Award Winning Line Up
On the evening of the opening day of the Icelandic Fisheries Exhibition, the 6th Icelandic Fisheries Awards celebrated a host of successes achieved by individuals and organisations from the commercial fishing industry.

The evening of 25 September 2014 saw the ceremony, which was hosted by the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture and the City of Kópavogur, in the beautiful Gerðarsafn Art Gallery. Fish processing equipment manufacturers Marel and Valka, and fishing company, HB Grandi, were amongst the winners at the sixth Icelandic Fisheries Awards.

This year was a sell-out event, therefore do not delay to reserve your stand space at the next Icelandic Fisheries Exhibition, which will return to Kópavogur in 2017.