Watch fairs: The transformation is yet to come
On November 23, 2018, Zenith CEO Julien Tornare stated in the Baselworld newsletter that the trade show needed new partnerships. That has now come to pass. Baselworld and the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva are coordinating their dates.
The global watch and jewelry industry has been recovering over the past year and a half after a recession. This is a good time to modernize two of the industry's leading trade fairs for buyers from all over the world. On 18 December 2018, the two organizers MCH Group and the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva announced that in 2020 SIHH will be held in Geneva from 26 to 29 April and Baselworld will take place in Basel from 30 April to 5 May.
There is no doubt that this kind of scheduling cooperation is in the interests of the exhibiting industry, because foreign visitors, buyers and the press in particular no longer have to travel to Switzerland twice, but can visit both trade fairs within a few days.
For obvious reasons, Baselworld has not published visitor numbers for years because the trade fair has been in dramatic decline. Apparently, there were still 106,000 visitors in 2017 and this figure was "stable" in 2018. According to the press release, a record number of almost 20,000 visitors came to the SIHH in 2018. Will the scheduling agreement be enough to save Baselworld and strengthen the SIHH?
Julien Tornare talks about the introduction of new technologies both in the watch and jewelry industry and for Baselworld. However, this is still largely pending. In the interview, he says of his industry: "In my opinion, the companies that survive in the future will be those that are in (constant) contact with their markets." He also provides a solution as to how this can be achieved. A paradigm shift in the handling of digitalization and online marketing is necessary.
A detailed article will follow in the print edition of Expodata Live Communication from February 21, 2019.
