The knowledge business
Know-how transfer is becoming more important, both for those who would like to know and those who know. And, of course, for the trade fairs.
Spiegel readers know more", was once a slogan of Germany's premier quality news magazine. The Frankfurter Allgemeine was quick to counter with its "there's a brain behind it" campaign. Perhaps it's time for trade fairs to make the next advertising claim: It could be "Knowledge gained first hand" or words to that effect. While politicians regularly call for know-how and business to grow together more, a platform has long existed on which this claim has become reality: trade fairs.
Teaching and research institutes have long seen the product shows as an opportunity to present their research to a favourably disposed audience with financial clout. "Almost every university exhibits on collective stands today", says Horst-G. Meier, managing director of the TU Berlin Servicegesellschaft. The reason: "Competition for funding has stiffened and funds are only forthcoming for those that show themselves."
Meier should know. He has 20 years of experience in presenting university knowledge in effective 3D appearances. But it wasn't until 2000 that he founded the service company in order to operate more professionally. At the time, he had an order to organise a technologists convention and a trade fair in four halls of Messe Berlin. "It was a pioneer operation", he says today. The TU Servicegesellschaft is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the TU Berlin but it is by no means limited to promoting Berlin and Brandenburg as a location for know-how on collective stands. Since its pioneering days, the company has grown to employ a permanent staff of ten and turns over about EUR 1 million a year. And Meier is still organising trade fairs. Small trade fairs. "Trade fairs within a trade fair", as he calls them. The bionics platform that he is running at the Hanover Fair is just such a mini-fair. The collective stand gives research institutes and innovative companies the opportunity to present possible solutions from nature and how they can be used in technical concepts and product solutions. And more and more companies and organisations are taking advantage of this option. Meier started out five years ago with 100 m2; now he fills three times the space. Initially only ten exhibitors approached the TU Servicegesellschaft; this year the number is 30, from all over Germany.
For orientation and business development Meier makes heavy use of networking with the trade visitors. "After all, we are not bionics experts ourselves", he admits. For the bionics exhibition, the Biokon network set up by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) plays an important role. Members of the network and the collective stand include universities throughout Germany, research institutes such as the Max Planck Institute and big name industrial companies, such as DaimlerChrysler, Miele, Festo, Speedo and Degussa. Meier's vision is to develop one of his research presentation platforms into a separate trade fair one day.
But for now Meier hires square metres at international tradeshows and resells them to exhibitors as a complete package. For example, exhibitors had to fork out EUR 685 at the last bionics show. Deutsche Messe still backs Meier's stand with special conditions but is gradually reducing its commitment. Five years ago, one square metre on the bionics platform was about EUR 70 cheaper. Meier is relaxed about it: "We are not primarily about getting free square metrage from organisers", he says. The prices per square metre are only a fraction of the trade fair costs anyway.
Meier offers an all-in price: He adds up all items incurred and calculates a price per square metre from it. At IAA Commercial Vehicles in September he had a small special exhibition with three exhibitors. They were Reutlingen University, the engineering company IAV and the software house EFKON Mobility. Meier calculated EUR 570 per square metre, including services such as catering, PR, promotional measures like flyers and a stand hostess. The price was possible because the organiser VDA in Frankfurt gave him a discount.
The trade fair organisers have good reason to support research platforms: In an AUMA survey, one in two trade fair visitors said the main objective of their visit was to find out about new developments. 34 % even saw further education as the motive for their participation. Contrast this with the maintenance of business contacts, which only one in four visitors regarded as the main aim of their visit.
So it comes as no surprise that the trade fairs also take their research institutes abroad. For example, Meier is responsible for the Laser Vision collective stand organised by the Munich-based IMAG in Shanghai. And he organises an International Pavilion for Research and Technology called "Future Parc" at CeBit Asia, also in Shanghai. In the first two years, the BMBF was still the sponsor of the future show. When the ministry withdrew, Deutsche Messe wanted to continue the event alone - and awarded the order to TU Servicegesellschaft. A display at this special event will set you back about 3,000.
The displays are small and fit on one square metre - ostentatious stand design is apparently not the be-all and end-all of knowledge marketing. Meier: "The most important thing is that universities send their professors so they can answer questions personally." Markus Ridder
m+a report Nr.7 / 2006 vom 27.10.2006
m+a report vom 27. Oktober 2006