More space, more budgets, more upbeat
Some 130 new themes are lined up so far for 2006. The "newcomers" are a motley crew, both in the B2B and B2C segments.
German exhibition makers certainly cannot be accused of lacking in creativity. And so next year, too, lots of new shows will again kick off in an effort to curry favour with their respective target groups. Around 130 new themes - about as many as in the previous year - have been noted so far in the m+a exhibition database. Judging by experience, their number will have grown considerably by May 2006.
The "newcomers" are a motley crew, both in the B2B and B2C segments. MHG Messe Bremen is welcoming Spring on a musical note with the launch there of an international jazz forum entitled jazzahead! Also new to Bremen are the garden show Gartenträume, Boatfit and AgrarfachDeutsche Messe AG in Hanover is rolling out four new shows. Promotion World parallel to Hanover Fair, Pipeline Technology, Industrial Building Automation and the congress Public Infrastructure will face the challenge of proving themselves. Also new is Digital Living, running concurrently with CeBIT, which comes as the organisers response, in association with their partners CMP Media, to the announcement of plans by Messe Berlin and the gfu entertainment and communications electronics society to stage the IFA World of Consumer Electronics annually in future. The IFA at the beginning of September 2006 will presumably be the "new" fair attracting the greatest (professional) attention next year.
So far, the frontrunner for maiden events is Cologne, where no fewer than nine new shows will be testing the water. 2006 is an important year for Cologne in general, one with "changes pointing the way for the future", as managing director Wolfgang Kranz puts it. When, on January 16, the doors open for imm cologne, they will also unlock the new halls, currently being put up in record time. Together with the former seven eastern halls, transformed into the new central northern concourse, the site will then form a compact, clearly structured entity making it quick and easy to find one's way around on the fairground. Big gateways and logistics areas between the one-storey halls provide space for capital goods and large exhibits, and the clear-span architecture and height of 11 and 15 metres mean vehicles can drive right through to assemble and dismantle the stands. The new site is not alone in looking to set new benchmarks: the fair itself will be a show of superlatives in terms of exhibition space. The entire Koelnmesse showground promises to improve the quality of stay, with the four new, identically constructed halls giving the site a clear structure.
The new northern halls replace the Rheinhallen, which as from 2006 will no longer be available for expos. The RTL Group, Europe's biggest television broadcasting company, is taking over the historic halls and turning them into a media centre.
Koelnmesse is not the only exhibition company poised for lots of changes in 2006. Smaller venues are also investing in their production capacities. One example is the exhibition centre in Bad Salzuflen, where work on extension and modernisation is making good headway. 15,000m2 of additional hall space is being created that Bielefeld-based show management company Survey urgently needs for its ZOW furniture and interior decoration components trade fair. The German association of private and local-authority regional show organisers FAMA ("All business is local") takes an upbeat view of the coming year, as the imminent increase in lending rates will encourage purchasing and capital investment. And a survey by the business magazine "Wirtschaftswoche" shows exhibitors intending to allocate more funds to their trade fair budgets. In short: extension work everywhere and higher exhibition budgets. Exhibition organisers are not the only ones therefore hoping that the latter trend will persist beyond 2006.
m+a report Nr.8 / 2005 vom 08.12.2005
m+a report vom 8. Dezember 2005