Trade fairs: The future has arrived
The post-COVID era will lead to a surge in digitalization, including in the trade show industry. The first online trade shows are now here.
Now come Luga in Lucerne and BEA in Bern with their first exclusively online "trade fairs". Messe Luzern launched Luga.digital as the digital meeting place and marketplace for Central Switzerland. Every spring, Luga is the marketplace and meeting place for the people of Central Switzerland. However, many of the interests and needs of visitors that Luga addresses are not only relevant during the ten Luga days, but throughout the year.
"That's why we've been working for some time on a concept for how we can expand Luga digitally," says Luzia Roos-Bättig, Exhibition Director of Luga. "Due to current events, we are now launching Luga.digital a year earlier than planned." With Luga.digital, Messe Luzern is creating a digital meeting place and marketplace for Central Switzerland to complement the physical Luga. The situation surrounding Corona has accelerated the process of Luga, which should have been live at Messe Luzern from April 24 to May 3.
Luga.digital: a long-term project
On Luga.digital, Luga, the 450 exhibitors, other companies, organizations and associations publish their stories, videos and events and link them to the interests of the visitors. Visitors can follow the topics that interest them on Luga.digital and thus receive their personalized news from Central Switzerland - on Luga.digital and weekly by e-mail.
Luga.digital gives exhibitors and other organizations the opportunity to reach the people of Central Switzerland 365 days a year. "The launch of Luga.digital is free for everyone. This is our contribution to the economy of Central Switzerland," says Luzia Roos-Bättig (pictured).
Luga.digital is not a "Corona campaign" that will only last for this year. Luga.digital will accompany Luga permanently from now on. "Luga.digital is a long-term project that will grow over time. We are giving our customers the opportunity to communicate with the people of Central Switzerland 365 days a year.
In a previous article has already been written about how if trade fair organizers didn't catch up in community building digitally, they would be overtaken on the right by tech companies not involved in trade fairs. That's one of the reasons why Messe Luzern's initiative is groundbreaking: it's now possible to build on where we are today.
365-Day Fair: Before, during and after the event
Luga.digital is based on Content-Live-Marketing from Conteo, a spin-off of ETH Zurich. With Content-Live-Marketing, Conteo has developed a concept and technology that enables organizers to successfully create online contacts between their exhibitors and visitors - before, during and after an event.
Messe Luzern already uses content live marketing at many of its trade shows. "Thanks to the collaboration with Conteo, we can offer our exhibitors an online marketing solution in addition to our live marketing offering. This makes us an even more important marketing partner for our customers," says Markus Lauber, CEO of Messe Luzern.
"Luga.digital means two premieres for Conteo," says Matthias Baldinger, Managing Director of Conteo (pictured above). "Content live marketing is being used for the first time at a B2C trade fair. And for the first time, we are replacing a canceled trade show with one of our digital meeting places."
The future is unevenly distributed
"The future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed," the American-Canadian cyberpunk writer William Gibson once said. What he meant was that trace elements of the future are always already there, but you have to network them correctly or recognize them and then initiate the consequences.
This has now happened in Lucerne and in Bern. It will be interesting to follow whether the 365-day fair will now come, a community between exhibitors, visitors - and the fair organizer beyond the time during which this community meets live. But the real meeting will always remain the highlight. It will become even more important after Corona because of pent-up demand and an increased awareness of the value of face-to-face exchanges.
Has the Corona situation given trade shows a much-needed digitization boost? In any case, the trade show industry will never be the same again.
