Friday, October 9, 2020
With the use of digital tools to deliver maximum reach, interzum 2021 aims to provide significantly more potential for customer contact bringing supply and demand together – as real-world marketplaces have done for centuries. “The trade fair’s future as a marketplace will increasingly take interzum into the digital sphere because this is where we see the best opportunities for increasing its reach and influence. This will not only allow us to reach those visitors who are unable to travel to Cologne – we will also be able to make contact with people who are taking the diverse issues addressed at interzum more seriously than before, but have never made the journey to Cologne,” says Maik Fischer, Director of interzum. “Digital reach will be used as an additional success criterion for all our trade fairs going forward. It will no longer simply be about the numbers of exhibitors and visitors attending in person and where they come from – we want to be measured in terms of the quality of our digital reach as well,” explains Fischer.
With the launch of the new interzum@home platform, the trade fair is doing more than simply expanding business opportunities for its exhibitors. It will also reach a broader spectrum of visitors, thereby offering participants diverse additional opportunities for customer interaction. The platform will be a forum for virtual exchanges between industry peers, for networking with relevant new and existing contacts and elevating business to the next level. In addition to a variety of live-streamed digital stages, there will be open and thematically curated video chats in the virtual cafe, and visitors attending the trade fair online will be able to experience new launches in interzum exhibitors’ exclusive showrooms. In this way, exhibitors will benefit directly from additional contacts and broader reach.
Unlike standard webinar and video conferencing systems, interzum@home will offer exhibitors more than just the option to stream content – they will also be able to start one-to-one conversations with customers directly. interzum@home will thereby offer real networking opportunities – a decisive advantage for any exhibitor.
“We aren’t waiting for the good old days to come back. We’re actively designing a new era.” This quote from Matthias Pollmann, Vice President Trade Fair Management, reflects the attitude of everyone at Koelnmesse. With interzum 2021, the trade fair team aims to offer the industry a safe platform on which it can maintain its position on the international market. “I think that we all have to be conscious of the fact that the world has changed and will continue to do so rapidly – and with it the reality of people’s lives is changing, too. But we firmly believe that everything is possible with our hygiene and safety concept, #B-SAFE4business, our new, broad-reach digital tools in the form of interzum@home, and a positive attitude. We have prepared the playing field ideally for the sector with interzum 2021. Now it is up to the industry to use this framework,” says Pollmann in his comments on the preparations for the forthcoming edition of interzum.
This elevates trade fairs in Cologne to a whole new level. Hybrid events will broadcast the action at the trade fair venue around the world in online-friendly formats, enriching the industry event with additional digital offerings and extended availability online. The template for success that trade fairs have always followed is being expanded, not replaced. “The action at the trade fair venue will continue to be the cornerstone of the event and creates pull as a temporary meeting place for entire industries. We are convinced that a huge concentration of energy is produced when the right people gather for a short period of time and take part in personal, emotional exchanges – that is what makes a trade fair; that is what makes interzum,” says Pollmann. “Times like these call for a level head when considering the future, but bravery is equally important because what applies to imm cologne is equally true for interzum: You make it possible – we make it happen.”
Tags: #B-SAFE4business, digital reach, hybrid event, Interzum, interzum@home, Maik Fischer, Matthias Pollmann, new normal
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