Zurich: hub of the trade fair industry
The 51st International Trade Fair Seminar in Zurich, held from June 22 to 25, 2019, offered—as it does every year—an opportunity to nurture valuable professional relationships as well as a varied program. Anyone who doesn’t attend is missing out.
The international trade show seminar of the three trade show country associations from Germany, Austria and Switzerland has been taking place since 1968. Anyone who does not attend here misses a unique opportunity. Although only trade show organizers, mostly competitors, meet, the quality of contacts forged or cultivated at the so-called colleagues' evening (picture above) is proverbial. Whoever misses it, life punishes him or her, to paraphrase former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev.
The framework theme at the 51st International Exhibition Seminar, organized by Expo Event Swiss LiveCom Association President Eugen Brunner and Christoph Kamber, Director of Trade Fairs and Consumer Exhibitions at the MCH Group, was safety and saw exciting speaker topics. These certainly included Austrian Andy Holzer, mountaineer, humorous - and blind. Normally, he can't even shop without the help of his wife. But his message of "our own Mount Everest", of taking on daily challenges as he does, left a deep impression on the 100 or so guests at the trade fair seminar.
Harry Hofstetter from Reflection Marketing ventured an outlook on tomorrow's trade show formats. His theses were not received equally everywhere, but they provided food for thought and the certainty: trade fairs have a good future. But not in the ivory tower of consultants, but through the know-how of "doing".
At the trade fair seminar, the social part and the famous "community" also play an important role (picture above). After 30 years in the trade fair industry, Dr. Peter Neven, Managing Director of the AUMA Exhibition and Trade Fair Committee in Berlin, will retire next January. In two years, his AUMA press colleague Harald Kötter will follow suit. Ulrich Kromer, always a critical spokesman for the management of Messe Stuttgart, is also retiring. Too bad, the German-speaking trade fair world will miss them all.
The International Trade Fair Seminar is aimed exclusively at trade fair organizers and trade fair service providers. In 2020, it will take place at the Dornbirn Exhibition Center from June 21 to 23. Perhaps then more colleagues from the trade fair country Austria will come again. We can only recommend it to them.
