Wednesday, July 8, 2020
The coronavirus pandemic has led NürnbergMesse to add a digital extension to its time-tested range of trade shows. The pandemic has made 2020 an exceptionally challenging year for trade shows, with 41 postponements or cancellations on the calendar so far, 23 of them at the Nuremberg exhibition centre. NürnbergMesse is taking a deliberately anticyclical approach to the coronavirus pandemic.
The new Corporate & Digital Development unit, established at the beginning of the year, will manage this major corporate transformation, and work closely with event partners, exhibitors and visitors to encourage the introduction of new hybrid trade show formats. The kick-off came early in July with the virtual edition of the MedtecLIVE trade show, in which everyone, whether classic suppliers of medical technology, research groups or start-ups, gathered to dialogue on a shared platform online. The GaLaBau and it-sa trade shows this fall will also be held in modified form. While GaLaBau involves product presentations at the Exhibition Centre that will be made accessible virtually, it-sa will begin offering year-round innovative dialogue formats as the best possible way of networking the IT security industry together.
“In terms of digitalisation, we view the crisis as an opportunity: important steps that we had already initiated before the pandemic will now be addressed even faster and more vigorously, so that we can get our exhibitors and visitors networked not just in person, but also digitally”, said Fleck’s fellow CEO Peter Ottmann, summarising the company’s rising digital activities.
Steadfast internationalisation
Pandemic or not, NürnbergMesse has kept its internationalisation strategy steadfastly on track. Last week, subsidiary NürnbergMesse China restarted its events business with three trade shows and one conference, all held under rigorous standards for safety and hygiene. From July 1 to 3, BIOFACH CHINA, NATURAL EXPO CHINA, CRAFT BEER CHINA and the PAK-iD conference for the packaging industry attracted more than 300 exhibitors and 13,000 visitors to the firm’s exhibition halls in Shanghai. The company is also pushing ahead its global activities with trade shows in the paint and varnish industry (coatings). Working with Vincentz Network, one of Germany’s largest firms for trade publications, and the Chinese coatings association CNCIA, NürnbergMesse will be holding the first China Coatings Show from September 2 to 4. And in Brazil, NürnbergMesse Brasil will be working with Vincentz Network and the Brazilian coating manufacturers’ association ABRAFATI to mount the trade show of the same name, ABRAFATI. This is South America’s most important combined trade show and conference on coatings, and is planned for São Paolo in September 2021.
On the other side, the trade events company made an impressive showing with the most successful odd-numbered year in its history – in 2019 it generated not only record sales of EUR 285.7 million, but a profit of EUR 2.3 million, a new high for an odd numbered year.
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