Seek and ye shall find
Yet again this year's industry trade fair World of Events proved a real treasure trove of event business. Visitors did not stint on praise.
The World of Events is traditionally the subject of much and avid lamentation: the congress is not sufficiently upmarket, there are too many school-kids rather than professional visitors, the exhibitors are not properly arranged by content, the WoE Night does not make the industry grade. Every year fresh criticism is heaped on the unfortunate’s head - be it from competent sources or otherwise, justly or unjustly. And journalists at the show are unfailingly asked: "Is there actually anything new this year at the World of Events?"Let's be honest for a moment: anyone who can't find something new at a fair like this and who "took away absolutely nothing at all in the way of content" really has only themselves to blame. Of course, those who expect to be spoon-fed with the interesting titbits - without making any personal effort, and ideally with the headline facts, prices and key contacts stored on a CD - are bound to go home from the show with relatively flat batteries as far as new ideas are concerned. Visitors to Wiesbaden in search of interesting special event locations may, for instance, be annoyed not to find them all in one exhibition hall, with the result that such entrancing venues as Wackerbarth Castle near Dresden, the event ship Pureliner or Bornstedt Crown Estate in Potsdam are turned up purely by chance.But when all providers in a specific service segment are located in the same place, there is always a danger of missing the proverbial wood for the trees. And you might not even pay other exhibition halls a glance, where there is also lots to see. This may consist of really elaborately crafted exhibition stands from design and decoration firms such as Vogelei or Blickfang, or those of providers of tools such as fencing events, set construction, unusual floral arrangements for functions or event management software.This year, many a WoE visitor took exception to the thematic predominance of football. It's a done deal, they complained dismissively, clients booked ages ago. While that may indeed be true of the big corporations, medium-sized businesses or even smaller firms still need the odd football tool for their functions, so exhibitors focused on the magical black-and-white orb reported. And it is a fact that SMEs are particularly important clients in the events business. The company boss himself often comes along to the fair to see what interesting ideas can be picked up there. People like that expect professional advice at an exhibition stand, and if they are satisfied with the result they are known to place a booking on the spot. Visitors of this calibre need to be courted, because they are far more likely to fill event service providers order books than a minion representing an industrial heavyweight, who leaves his visiting card, get quotes from 20 competitors after the fair and has them pitch against each other, only to end up deciding to stay with the company that has already been used satisfactorily for years.People who expect to have the marketing directors of major German companies served up to them on a silver platter in the aisles at Wiesbaden, complete with visiting card, betray a certain naiveté in their approach to an exhibition of this kind. "The" marketing exec does not walk around at trade fairs with a sign: "Looking for a service provider - and you're the one!" Such people have to be invited specifically to the exhibition stand, which is just what the big caterers and partner companies of the PEPE booth do in Hall 1, for example. Each year before the exhibitors evening proper PEPE gathers together a really interesting clientele to network about what's happening in the industry. This can produce the much-vaunted win-win situation that makes for satisfied customers: "Last year I numbered among the unkind critics of the fair and the WOE Night," Dieter Klingbeil from the Signal-Iduna insurance group admits for one. "But the way the whole exhibition and WOE Night went off has been palpably improved in key parts and to my full satisfaction." He praised the WOE Night as a real visiting card of the event industry, adding that the fair had fully satisfied the exacting demands of a "biased" audience. This year, too, the World of Events Night, staged on this occasion in the magnificent setting of Wiesbaden's Kurhaus pump rooms, brought together practically all industry members of distinction and those aspiring to become so. There, contacts are made and cultivated and the wheels oiled for the odd piece of business. That is the actual point of such a function, and not so much whether the exhibitors evening was "event-like" enough or not.Wiesbaden presented lots of nice individual event tools, special services providers and an exciting performer here and there - which is ultimately the justification for a fair such as the World of Events. There the visitor can really experience all aspects of event business - at all levels of excellence. Antje Peters-Reimann
m+a report Nr.2 / 2006 vom 24.03.2006
m+a report vom 24. März 2006