Stronger profile for AUMA

President Thomas H. Hagen believes the association has not yet exhausted its potential as a provider of customised services.

At long last a representative of the SME community, although with experience of the very big boys too, officials may have thought when, a good two years ago, they persuaded Thomas H. Hagen to become chairman of The Association of the German Trade Fair Industry, AUMA, in Berlin. He takes the honorary post seriously, exercising it with commitment and dedication. Since then AUMA's been busy. "We need a top team, not a team with a top man," is his comment on the association's new management structure. Now, with Peter Neven on board as chief executive officer, Hagen is steering even more of a service course for the ship. "If exhibitors only knew what expertise AUMA possesses and where it can help," Hagen sighs. And this is precisely where he intends kicking in.
Ahead of the 100th anniversary that AUMA will celebrate suitably next year in Berlin, there is much talk at the moment of visions, mission statements and measures that are already to have been implemented come May 2007. Hagen, whose main occupation is as boss of the Detmold-based Weidmüller Group, the world market leader in electrical connection technology, runs the association like the business. He is a firm believer in trade fairs, and in their potential; after all, exhibitions are one of Germany's showpiece sectors alongside the automotive and logistics industries. He knows he has the backing of German industry. "In B2B communication exhibitors invest almost 40 % of their marketing budget on tradeshows.
AUMA's chairman is convinced that his association also benefits from the good reputation tradeshows enjoy. "Some associations whose industry generates sales on a par with the exhibition industry - around EUR 2.5 billion on the organisation side - are hardly present in the general public's perception. I don't think either the exhibition companies or our association can complain of a lack of attention. The fact is that the exhibition industry is the sector that probably enjoys the highest public awareness relative to its size." Moving forward, AUMA's high service competence for exhibitors and show management companies will be placed even more firmly to the fore.
Without trade fairs Germany might still be the world's major exporter, "but it would be much harder going without fairs. Small and medium-size businesses are not the only ones to benefit from having so many leader fairs on their doorstep." Hagen says that on average 30 % of professional attendees come from abroad. The arguments in favour of Germany as an exhibition location have been cited often enough: maximum internationality, outstanding venues and other infrastructure, long-range exhibition concepts - and the much-maligned service aspect is now also superb, he insists.
As soon as talk turns to Germany's exhibition industry, the buzzwords excess capacities and privatisation crop up. Hagen is dismissive. "I doubt whether unreserved privatisation would solve many problems. AUMA's chairman continues: "Nor can I see that the quality of organisation and management is any better." And no one can really say where surplus capacities begin. "There’s probably no exhibition centre in the world with 100 % occupancy." Interesting in this context is that there is also talk of surplus capacities in office property or in the hotel trade in many cities, although public ownership is virtually non-existent in these areas. "Private ownership evidently doesn't automatically lead to capacity adjustments." "Incidentally, we recently worked out that German exhibition centres occupancy rates 25 years ago were roughly the same as at present. That means either that surplus capacities have always existed, or expansion has been largely in line with market demand after all."
100 years - that's quite something for an association, too. Moving forward, Thomas Hagen still wants to see AUMA as the focal provider of communal services such as lobbying, umbrella marketing, market research and education for the industry. "But AUMA must also further raise its profile as a provider of customised services for its members. I'm convinced that's where the future of associations lies."

m+a report Nr.2 / 2006 vom 24.03.2006
m+a report vom 24. März 2006