Messe München, the organizer of the ISPO fairs, says that the success of IAA Mobility, the first international in-person event of the kind in 18 months, proves that major international trade fairs can again be held in Germany like in the past. The show, where the bike sector was relatively under-represented in contrast with the automotive industry, attracted 744 exhibitors and more than 400,000 registered visitors from 95 countries at the Munich fairgrounds and other sites in the city between Sept. 7 and 12. As only a maximum 50,000 were admitted inside the fairgrounds at the same time, most of the visitors were consumers attending the show in open spaces in the city’s downtown area, but some came from as far away as the U.S., Mexico and South Korea. Almost 90 percent of the visitors were vaccinated.
Klaus Dittrich, chairman and CEO of Messe München, said the visitors “acted in exemplary fashion on the fairgrounds,” wearing masks and following very strict safety measures for hygiene and physical distancing. The exhibition halls were ventilated. The trade visitors who purchased their tickets online were able to scan and upload their vaccination cards ahead of time, preventing long waits.
Messe München is expecting a positive development for upcoming trade shows like OutDoor by ISPO, scheduled for Oct. 5 to 7 (more on it in the Outdoor Industry Compass), or Expo Real, a real estate show for which 1,125 exhibitors have already registered.
The Covid pandemic has led to the cancellation of over 4,000 trade fairs around the world, leading others to move into a hybrid physical/digital mode, and generally to reinvent themselves to provide higher-quality content for exhibitors and visitors. Messe München says they have been turned into industry platforms to connect people, intensifying the dialogue during the show and for the balance of the year. “But we don’t just want to network the specialists with one another. We also want to connect them with all people whose future is being negotiated here,” said Dittrich in a message on Linkedin.
As previously reported, next year’s ISPO Munich show will for the first time feature a dedicated hall for consumers. It will also propose less expensive modular stands to persuade more exhibitors to participate in the in-person event. “Networking, new business contacts, business deals, but also the inspiring dialogue - everything is easier face-to-face,” Dittrich said. “That is why, for me, the ideal trade fair of the future is the intelligent combination of the best of both worlds, the smart mix of face-to-face events with digital 24/7 add-ons.”
In our opinion, such a hybrid concept goes hand-in-hand with the current trends in remote working, where more and more companies complement it with work at the office. Catering to this trend, Zoom is reportedly working on the ”Hybrid Office of the Future.”
Jeanette Friedrich, head of the ISPO Group, claimed in an interview circulated by Messe München that the joint appearance of an industry at the same time and place “achieves a media reach that no brand, no matter how big, would ever achieve on its own.“ Dittrich said that the share of purely digital or hybrid formats will certainly increase in the future, but he also mentioned ”a certain digital fatigue,“ adding that ”digital is quite limited when it comes to personal contact. Nothing can replace a personal encounter. And neither can the feeling of actually holding a new product in your hand.“
Dittrich said he doesn’t expect that ISPO Munich will be cancelled. ”If it does come to that all exhibitors will get their money back and we will organize an outstanding digital event. We have been working on creating digital platforms and products for ten years,“ he noted, crediting Tobias Gröber, executive director of Messe München’s consumer goods business unit, for the useful pioneering work that he has done in this regard ”for the entire trade show industry.“
