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AUMA Autumn Press Conference
30.12.2007 In 2007, the international trade fairs in Germany were able to register their best result since the year of 2000, since the peak of the New Economy boom. The exhibitor, space and visitor figures of the 141 trade fairs in 2007 have increased by 2.5 – 3% according to AUMA’s provisional calculations. There is also good reason for optimism about the trend in the next two years: the German exhibitors want to increase their trade fair investments for 2008 and 2009 by 6%. This was emphasized by Thomas H. Hagen, Chairman of AUMA - Association of the German Trade Fair Industry - at the association’s autumn press conference on 11.12.2007 in Düsseldorf.
- German trade fairs with highest growth since 2000
- Trade fair budgets of exhibitors increase by 6% for 2008/2009
- AUMA Chairman Hagen: Trade fair industry has good reason to be optimistic
Rented stand space increased significantly
The results in detail: the number of exhibitors increased by around 3% in comparison with the previous year’s events. One year earlier the increase had only been 1.3%. The growth is clearly being generated from outside Germany, according to Hagen. This shows that Germany and Europe are apparently continuing to be important sales markets and that the German trade fairs offer better platforms for this than other countries.
The rented space has also increased by 3% (2006: +0.7%). The AUMA chairman: “A company needs an adequate stand space. That is not simply a question of representation, but about adequate treatment of the customers. If you do not want to simply distribute brochures, but also to create an atmosphere where you can hold discussions and conclude business transactions, that should take place in an appropriate setting”.
For 2007 AUMA expects 2.5% more visitors compared with the preceding events. There is a broad spectrum of positive numbers of visitors, especially at investment goods trade fairs. The engineering fairs were undoubtedly the winners of the trade fair year 2007, certainly also a signal of the extremely good economic situation in this sector. Hagen: “Also the area of renewable energies is registering strong exhibitor and visitor increases, from wind to solar energy. To that extent, the trade fair business is also benefiting from the high oil and gas prices”.
According to Hagen, trade fairs are not threatened by virtual worlds. Platforms like Second Life are not relevant, in particular, in the business-to-business sector. Trade fairs, after all, are “real life”. He said that they operated in a world in which payment is made in hard Euros.
Overall, AUMA expects a total of 164,000 exhibitors at this year‘s international trade fairs, more than 6.6 mill. m² of rented space and over 10.4 mill. visitors.
Almost 40% of the exhibitors investing more money in trade fairs
According to the results of the AUMA MesseTrend, the annual representative survey of 500 German exhibitors conducted by TNS Emnid, there are further grounds for optimism. The exhibiting industry is looking towards the immediate future quite confidently.
Within the two next years, they want to spend 6% more on trade fair participations than they did in 2006 and 2007.
Of all the exhibitors questioned, 38% want to spend more money and only 14% less. Larger companies, in particular, are investing more in trade fair participations.
The AUMA chairman: “In a comparison between the various sectors, investment goods manufacturers, in particular, are planning higher trade fair expenditure. Here, 46% want to invest more money, only 13% less. That is surely also a reflection of the good economic situation in the engineering industry. Of the consumer goods exhibitors, 30% are planning higher trade fair spending and over half plan to maintain a constant level of expenditure”.
Decline in domestic participations halted
The average trade fair budget in 2008 and 2009 will amount to 399,000 Euro. With this amount the companies want to organise 10 participations, 6 of them in Germany and 4 abroad, just as many as in 2006 and 2007. In particular, he added, companies which already frequently exhibit want to even expand their engagement in Germany.
There was also no shift of participations in Germany to participa¬tions abroad. The exhibitors are well aware, according to the AUMA Chairman, what they have at German trade fairs: international visitors with high decision-making competence, a comparatively moderate participation price and a high trade fair quality.
The importance of trade fairs in the communication mix of the German exhibitors has increased once again. 82% of them regard trade fairs as important or very important in their business-to-business communications (2006: 79 %). The lead of trade fairs compared with the sales force has increased yet again. The latter lost one percentage point and now lies quite clearly in second place with 77%. It is followed by direct mailing and advertising in trade journals, each of them with slight increases. Events, on the other hand, have apparently lost some of their fascination, only 39% regard them as important (previously 42%).
Promotional programme for young enterprises started well
AUMA’s managing director, Dr. Peter Neven, explained the trade fair promotional programme of the federal government for young, innovative companies which was launched in June 2007. The orga¬nisers have arranged joint stands at 14 trade fairs on which 165 companies have exhibited. The aim of this programme is to introduce young companies to export markets at an early stage. Therefore, only trade fairs are selected which have more than a minimum share of foreign visitors. For 2008, the Ministry of Economics has selected 48 trade fairs, the federal government has firm plans for a continuation of the programme in 2009.
Dr. Neven: “We hope that the success of the companies involved will also motivate other newcomers to make use of the large industry-specific platforms at an early stage. After all, the marketing of new products from a niche can take a very long time – and possibly too long for a company’s survival”.
AUMA has considerably increased its research activities. One study on the future of the trade fair industry has just been completed.
The Leipzig Graduate School of Management has developed three scenarios outlining how the trade fair industry might look in 2020, taking into consideration different framework conditions.
Apart from that, AUMA has currently commissioned research to establish whether and how decision-makers make use of trade fairs as information and procurement instruments. To this end, trade fair visitors are being interviewed, but also non-visitors. The focal points are information behaviour, the use of trade fairs and other instruments within the context of the decision-making process and the satisfaction with the offers of exhibitors and organisers. The study will be completed in the 1st quarter of 2008.
As of 2008, AUMA will concentrate its research and training activities in a separate department, in the Institute of the German Trade Fair Industry.
Press contact:
Harald Koetter, phone: +49/30/24 000140, fax: +49/30/24 000340, email: h.koetter@auma.de
Trend_2008_development.eps (1 MB)
Trend_2008_Investments.eps (1,2 MB)
Trend_2008_communications_mix.eps (1,3 MB)
Development_2007.eps (800 KB)
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Copyright © 2007 AUMA_ Ausstellungs und MesseAusschuss der Deutschen Wirtschaft e.V.Last update: 1/2008
