The Swiss doer
Not content with merely selling marketing space, Swiss Exhibition also wants to be a platform for marketing live. CEO René Kamm is the driving force behind this development.
The man has a vision. René Kamm works in the highest office building in Switzerland. He could just lean back and let it happen. After all, the company whose group management René Kamm heads "controls" two-thirds of the trade fair market of our neighbouring country. It also boasts the same share of the turnover of the Swiss trade fair market.
Swiss Exhibition last year earned CHF 221.9 million (previous year: CHF 186 million). This result is largely due to a strong trade fair year with Swissbau and Igeho and a very successful Baselworld. This growth is set to continue in the future - not only in terms of sales, but also in the services it offers. René Kamm wants to turn the exhibition company into profit-making leading international live marketing provider. And it is Swiss Exhibition's declared aim to further expand that leading position. At the centre of the company's marketing strategy lies the strengthening of its own trade fair business - which accounts for no less than 80 % of its revenue - and diversification into allied lines of business: the Swiss market is small.
New growth areas offering opportunities lie abroad and in similar business areas. The event services sector, for example, according to Kamm offers disproportionately greater growth potential than the trade fair business. In the medium term, this sector is set to account for a "substantial share" of the company's result.
The man surveys the business activity below from his desk on the 17th floor. The 37th Art Basel had just closed its doors the previous day. This international parade of modern art produced a hugely successful show. But it is no longer a trade fair in the traditional sense. Art Basel is a festival of culture, an international celebration with a serious side to it - and a beautiful one. It has undergone a transformation in recent years and learnt a thing or two from its sister event, Art Miami Beach. This spin-off, initially dismissed as a party exhibition, has brought a breath of light-heartedness to the city on the Rhine.
Conversion of Messe Basel to a public limited company, the fusion of trade fair locations Basle and Zurich, the foundation of Swiss Exhibition, the stock market flotation - a lot has happened in the last five years. The merger has streamlined the number of topics available. That applies first and foremost to the (former) guest tradeshow location Zurich.
When Basle and Zurich merged, the newly formed company was privatised. Swiss Exhibition is a listed company: for a trade fair organiser a somewhat unusual state of affairs. But that's not an obstacle for Kamm "You have to talk to the investors. They, like us, are interested in only one thing: a successful business venture." In strategic terms Kamm does not define Swiss Exhibition, which he is restructuring to achieve a new level of quality, as a trade fair company, but as a live marketing company. The first step was the purchase of Winkler Veranstaltungstechnik last summer which is one of the largest European companies of its kind in the sector and does business all over the world. Around 1500 events are served by Winkler every year in Switzerland and beyond. Its founder, Patrick Winkler, has since joined the group management of Swiss Exhibition and manages the subsidiary. The purchase has also added turnover outside their own trade fair business.
Swiss Exhibition has become one of the stock market's favourite shares since it was floated on the stock market five years ago. After all, it has managed to double its value in that period. The investors give his strategy their full backing. And that includes the Winkler takeover. After all, this purchase marks a first step on the road to independence from location-bound business.
The organiser takes a critical look back into the past. "Once upon a time we just handled trade fairs, now we make them." The CEO sees handling expertise as a basic requirement, "the basics". But it's not enough if you want to be successful. "You have to reinvent each issue of a trade fair", he says. That goes both for its look and its content.
After all, no two trade fairs are alike, says Klamm, referring to the many different sectors that exhibit in Basle. You have to serve every sector differently. That is something else that has changed in the last five years. The team is smaller and fewer employees work in the technical field, while marketing and sales has been bolstered - particularly with respect to the main Basle events, Baselworld and Art Basel. Knowledge about the sector of the trade fair topic being handled is imperative. Vacancies in the project teams at Swiss Exhibition are filled with experts from the sector concerned. "We use the know-how and buy in the technology."
Take a walk through the halls of the watch and jewellery show Baselworld and you will start to appreciate where the marketing live approach is heading. It's also a visual spectacle. The event is just one big stage show, a piece of jewellery in itself. The halls are luxuriously clad and decorated, no sign of technical equipment anywhere. The expectation from exhibition and trade fair contractors is correspondingly high. "The venue is perfectly designed; each area has its own individual style." This is something Swiss Exhibitions is prepared to pay for. René Kamm: "Exhibition hall architecture is a catastrophe. How can you expect to create a good atmosphere with that backdrop?" They have long since given up merely selling square metres: "We offer marketing services." The price, he says, is secondary if the goods are right.
There is nothing to equal the quality and quantity of exhibitors at the watch and jewellery show. They have high standards. That goes for the premises, too. The more demanding of Swiss Exhibition's clients thinks that Basle could perhaps do with a revamp. So EUR 350 million is to be spent on improving the infrastructure of the Basle venue, making it the largest investment in the recent history of the company. Targets no longer focus on surface area but on the growing needs of the exhibitors. The plan must be completed by 2012. The head-end structure of Hall 1 will be sacrificed in its place. The oldest surviving exhibition building in Basle will have to make way for a glass arcade that will cover the exhibition square. René Kamm: "Watches and jewellery mean lifestyle and that will be reflected in the exhibition location."
m+a report Nr.5 / 2006 vom 14.08.2006
m+a report vom 14. August 2006