A table, two chairs and a Ferris wheel
ACHEMA 2021 — digital
960
15.000
ACHEMA 2018 — live
3.737
145.000
Digital flops
According to Deutsche Messe, there were only 90,000 participants at Hannover Messe Digital. At ACHEMA Pulse, held in June 2021, some 960 exhibiting companies from 38 countries used the interactive platform to connect with a total of 15,000 participants. By contrast, 3,737 exhibitors met 145,000 visitors at the show's last live event in 2018. According to the organizers, 69,000 visitors bustled around the ISH Digital website in March 2021, but around 190,000 visitors had been present at the last live event. The important target group of the skilled trades was not at all enthusiastic online. These are sobering figures and they lead to the conclusion that digital solutions cannot be a substitute for a real trade show. Large brand manufacturers picked up their customers digitally with elaborately designed virtual showrooms. But exhibitors achieve on average only a quarter of the benefits of an on-site trade show with digital trade shows, says the Association of the German Trade Fair Industry, AUMA. Various surveys by the VDMA Valves Association have also shown that exhibitors have found the digital formats, which have sprung up at short notice, to be an interim solution at best.
Was the cancellation of the trade fairs a loss?
But was the cancellation of the trade shows really a loss for the companies in the Corona phase? Even before Corona, many leading trade shows in the valves industry were struggling with declining visitor numbers. Companies were increasingly asking themselves what value their trade show presence still had in the digital age. Today, product information can be researched in more detail and more completely via the Internet than ever before. Purely nationally oriented supporting programs with overloaded technical lecture series combined with emotion-free events without celebrities met with little approval from visitors. Before the pandemic, Digitalization was limited to the exhibitor directory, registration processes and visit planning. The growing competition with other international trade shows was underestimated.
According to an AUMA survey, however, at the time of Corona 60 percent of German companies missed the opportunity to present new products and as many as 84 percent missed networking at the trade fair. However, a survey by the pollster Civey came to a different conclusion: For 56 percent of the participants, the loss of leading trade fairs after the pandemic was no loss at all or only a minor one. Allegedly, younger generations in particular could imagine compensating for a presence trade show with alternative offers.
Live experience: the desire for real encounters is present among young and old.
[Photo: Messe Frankfurt 2018 ©ACHEMA]
Products you can touch: Despite virtual reality, this is only available at the trade fair stand.
[Photo: Messe Frankfurt GmbH | Pietro Sutera]
The truth is probably in between
The desire for real encounters exists among young and old. But tomorrow’s events must offer more and more new ways of extending encounters. Live experience and digital experience must not be a contradiction in terms. The famous “digital oversaturation” and the lack of success of many online events mean that there is currently a great pent-up demand for face-to-face meetings. Finally, trade fairs are possible again without major restrictions. Real products can be held in the hand again. Many salespeople are looking forward to being able to sit at the same table as their negotiating partner again.
Is the big reboot coming now?
However, the post-pandemic trade show landscape is different. The goal must be to combine digital with live events and thus unite the best of both worlds. If it is possible to realize greater networking of exhibitors and visitors by digital means, an important step has already been taken. Ideally, 365 days a year. But there is much more to do. Emotions and personal contact with “people” – i.e., trade show visitors – must come to the fore.
Digital oversaturation – home office regulation and contact restrictions led to increased screen time for everyone in the pandemic. As a result, the digital audience is becoming more critical and weighing whether “one more digital channel“ is worth it.
FOMO – “fear of missing out“ has become a common phrase of the information age. The oversupply provokes the fear of missing out.
A table, two chairs and a Ferris wheel
A simple return to “pre-Corona” trade show offerings is not the answer. So a table and two chairs are not enough. Rather, the big wheel must be turned so that visitors from all over the world once again flock to the halls. This means that the established trade show companies need to rethink their approach, be willing to adapt and be creative. New solutions must be discussed and tried out. The price/performance ratio of the trade fairs may also have to be questioned.
The VDMA Valves Association is convinced: World-leading trade fairs need publicity to make their leading role visible. This should also include a commitment by the respective city to the event in public space. What is needed in the future is a more event-oriented, analog offering with digital accompanying measures as “constant noise" between the real dates.
The trade fair as a “place to be”
An attractive, attention-grabbing supporting program will ensure that the world’s leading trade show once again becomes an event that no one wants to miss, true to the motto “Fear of Missing Out”. An international cultural, music and entertainment program meets a diverse international culinary offering. Tomorrow’s fair will be crowned with digital features that pick up visitors at home. Digital live talk rounds with CEOs of the world's leading brands would be conceivable to underpin the claim of a world-leading trade fair. Much is imaginable, much is feasible. This is how the trade show of the future will become reality and fulfill the task it has: Bringing people together to network.
