The creation of our organisation
Eurodogshow "The history"
It all started as a small pedigree dog exhibition with 159 entries, that was organised by our Honorary chairman José Misselyn (in the college on the main square) in Menen on 20th September 1964. The show developed into what we are today, ‘the dog event in Belgium with an European character’. We had to move because of lack of space into the recently opened halls of Kortrijk, now Kortrijk Xpo, in 1968. There we had 7.000 square meters and the necessary facilities at our disposal to accommodate 474 exhibitors and 6.000 visitors. In 1972 we were already using the semi-finished 2nd hall to provide enough room for 1110 exhibitors from various European countries.
Subsequently we wanted to emphasize our European character by introducing the name “EURODOGSHOW”, which is clear to every European. We launched a quadrilingual entry form as well as catalog, thence we obtained the desired success. Starting from 1975 we switch to a two-day exhibition in both halls where we had an area of 11.200 square meters at our disposal.
At that time we welcomed 1.840 exhibitors from various European countries as well as 13.000 visitors. The growth continued and we were the first to express our wish to have a “third” hall. That time had come in 1984. The three halls extended over an area of 16.500 square meters and the area was extended even more, with over 20.000 square meters, with the construction of a fourth hall in 1988. The EURODOGSHOW wants to grow equally to the halls in quality as well as quantity. In 1990 we counted 2.522 dogs for judgements of beauty and 500 dogs for different competitions. In 1991 we had a fifth hall at our disposal, an area of over 25.500 square meters. Then 3.600 dogs entered the show, of which 600 took part in different competitions, and 30.000 visitors. The sixth hall was built in 1999 which we also use thus we have 33.000 square meters at our disposal.
Our show has seen strong growth in recent years and has also become more professionalised. Therefore we are the number 1 in Belgium with a total of around 4000 registered dogs for our judgements of beauty and peripheral activities.
Eurodogshow ; a Top team, a Top organisation, a Trendsetter !
The Chairman
Joël Vanlerberghe
