Presentation
As a technical and promotional organization open to the entire stone and allied sectors, the Italian MARMOMACCHINE Association currently has about 250 members among producers of marble, granite and other ornamental stones and makers of machines, tools and equipment to work them.

Intended as a link between companies whose work is complementary - tool manufacturers and users, for example - the Italian MARMOMACCHINE Association is especially committed to technical standardization, product qualification and sector promotion worldwide.

To reach its goals the Association supports promotional and technical committees open to experts in each sector, serving as steering groups to achieve the Association's statutory goals.

The Association works in total independence in its own offices, directly or through its services company. Among other things, it participates in defining European standards and conducts research in its own Studies Center, which also houses the export consortium of the same name and the International Marble Institute (IS.I.M.) of which it is a founding partner.

Each year, members of the Italian MARMOMACCHINE Association are represented with literature and special stands at fifteen-odd international trade fairs where, together with the Association, they directly contact thousands of foreign operators interested in their products.

These promotional events are particularly important because they make it possible to set up development strategy motivating the search for new uses of natural stones as alternatives to other, surely less prestigious, building materials.

This is a heavy commitment, with a number of work priorities that are obviously strategic. In fact, the large turnout of Italian companies and sector fairs is, taken together, an act of faith and demonstrates their awareness of playing an innovative and locomotive role in developing the world's major markets.

The Association works closely with the Italian Foreign Trade Commission (ICE) in annually defining promotional programs for sectors of specific interest. With the Consumer Goods/Building Office for the natural stone segment and in exclusive partnership with that of the Multi-Sector Instrumental Mechanics for the stone-working machinery and equipment segment.

The Italian MARMOMACHINE Association participates with its own commission members in the WG A.H. of CENtc 143 in Cologne, which deals with diamond tool quality, in WG 11 of CENtc 151 at UNI, concerned with marble machinery safety, and in CENtc 246 (European) on qualifying marble, granite and stones for paving/flooring and cladding/facing.

Through its own services company - Marmomacchine Servizi Srl - it organizes, plans, manages and provides promotional services to internationalize companies working marble and ornamental stones. In Italy and abroad it organizes trade fairs, group exhibits, technological symposiums, congresses and seminars. It prepares supports for its members' business activities, such as business reports, market research and studies on business procedures. In addition, together with the International Marble Institute, the Association offers training and updating courses for managers, technicians and business people. It organizes and runs periodic and/or special courses as well as seminars and internships in Italy and abroad. It also sets up programs and projects for technical assistance and consultancy.

In so doing it achieves the most outstanding of institutional goals, thanks to direct cooperation with Italian companies and the support of many foreign technicians and sector operators in various parts of the world, who willingly participate in programs of great general interest.

All the companies belonging to the Italian MARMOMACCHINE Association, whether as permanent or aggregate members, can be found in the annual Directory with CD-ROM distributed free of charge to the international clients and trade schools requesting it. The Directory is also available in the stands set up and managed by the Association at the world's most important trade fairs and attests to the reliability of its members, recommending their products. In addition, the Directory can be continually consulted on the Association's web site and in various reference periodicals.

Each member has the right to display the Association's logo and exclusive tricolor cockade bearing the words the best choice in its fair stands, place of business and on its business literature. This is to show its legitimate membership in the Italian MARMOMACCHINE Association and in the part of Italy, Inc. that reflects the country's tradition, potential and leadership in producing natural stones and the extraction and processing technologies that turn them into prestigious final products, ready for use in building.