Trade fairs for the world: The Geneva Experience

The organization of trade shows and events is the core competence that has grown, and the world is the market. Over the past 15 years, the Palais des Expositions et des Congrès de Genève, or Palexpo for short, has systematically expanded its core business as an organizer, host and co-host of trade fairs and events. 40 employees take care of the organization of its own trade fairs or those hosted by it, such as the flagship International Motor Show, the Salon du Livre or the three-themed EPHJ trade fair for the watchmaking and microelectronics industries, as well as the organization of trade fairs and events hosted by third-party organizers.

Palexpo is dynamic with a mix of its own trade shows and events with a high international share of exhibitors and visitors and as host of trade shows and events of third-party organizers, also these traditionally with a global audience. Geneva is home to the world. Welcome to the Palexpo Experience!

It is not new that the trade fair business is changing in Switzerland, in Europe, indeed worldwide. But Geneva is not Switzerland, it is different there. Geneva is the most international exhibition center in Switzerland and is located in the middle of a transnational catchment area with 2 million consumers.

Palexpo benefits from a high level of internationality in terms of events and multilingualism throughout, with German, English, French and Italian. International third-party organizers find here an excellent infrastructure and a market with strong purchasing power. Palexpo is not vulnerable to the fluctuations of the Swiss market. The neutral location, without a predominant industry, attracts mainly international organizers to Lake Geneva.

Exhibitors in Geneva address a market of millions here. The Swiss catchment area within a 30-minute radius stretches from lower Lake Geneva to Lausanne with around one million inhabitants. The cross-border catchment area extends to Annecy with a further million consumers. In total, there are two million consumers in this economic area with its high purchasing power.
Exhibitors in Geneva address this two-million market. That is the reason that Palexpo CEO Claude Membrez (pictured above) says Palexpo's competitors are not in Switzerland but in other global countries, primarily in Europe. Palexpo's prime location in the center of Europe and "two-million Geneva" make it unique in Switzerland. It attracts international organizers to Lake Geneva, such as those of the Ebace aviation trade show or Vitafoods Europe.

The aforementioned high level of internationality is proverbial at Palexpo. Now it is being continued outside the exhibition center in Geneva. In recent years, Palexpo has also organized its own events beyond Geneva.

Since 2016, Monte Carlo has hosted an offshoot of the Geneva art fair, Artmonte-carlo. In Hong Kong, building on the home event in Geneva, the first Asian Invention Fair was launched. This foreign expansion continued with the first Silicon Valley International Invention Festival in June 2019 in Santa Clara, California.

The internationalization of the home business strengthens the events in Geneva, it offers an extended benefit to the exhibitor customers thanks to the expansion of the market community and it contributes to the turnover.

Claude Membrez comments: "Without the additions in Hong Kong and Santa Clara, our inventors' fair in Geneva would be in danger. Without our initiative, another organizer would certainly have put on the show in Hong Kong. In addition, Palexpo can take advantage of the opportunities of globalization by increasing sales and profits." Palexpo also offers services such as catering at the Swiss stand at the 2015 World Expo in Milan. 

Innovation is one of the key words at Palexpo when it comes to describing the future. The establishment of the first blockchain congress "Île Verte" as part of the International Exhibition of Inventions, the focus on technological developments during the International Motor Show or the event "Royaume du Web", which was held for the first time in 2017, are among them. Right off the bat, 10,500 highly networked visitors took part here. "The Royaume du Web is neither a trade fair nor a congress, not even a classic face-to-face event, but a hybrid of digital and real-time platform," says Claude Membrez. He says about the change of the medium trade fair: "What concerns us is the change of the format trade fair. But about the high value of encounter communication, also in the future, we have no doubts."

Both the immediate proximity to the international airport Geneva-Cointrin and to the international railroad station with direct connections to European capitals such as Brussels or Paris as well as the continuously modernized Palexpo are reasons for international organizers to choose the metropolis in western Switzerland. We know of no other exhibition center in Europe, or indeed in the world, where the exhibition grounds can be reached on foot from the airport in 5 minutes.

These are the reasons why the American organizer, the National Business Aviation Association, together with its European offshoot, the European Business Aviation Association, chose Palexpo as the venue for their joint aviation trade show Ebace, which attracted 16,000 trade visitors from 100 countries. Parts of the airfield itself were used as exhibition space for 55 aircraft in 2019 (see picture above). Palexpo has a state-of-the-art infrastructure and will invest a further eight million Swiss francs per year in modernization over the next few years, financed by its own resources.

Trade shows remain popular at Palexpo, even with new formats. And further internationalization is part of the step into the future. In the annual report, Palexpo Supervisory Board Chairman Robert Hensler speaks of a "turbulent" exhibition year. But Palexpo had a successful fiscal 2018. coincidence? No, says Hensler. This, he says, is the result of a targeted expansion process that will continue. Palexpo will continue to innovate.