Messe Frankfurt has announced that ISH will be taking place as a purely digital event in 2021, with a wide range of digital features on offer. These will include exhibitor presentations (products, information, videos, contact persons, chat functions and one-to-one video calls), intelligent matchmaking that delivers suitable business partners for AI-supported lead generation, live streams and on-demand broadcasts of the supporting program, and appointments for online meetings with exhibitors. And all of this will be available round the clock throughout the event, worldwide and in every time zone.
Wolfgang Marzin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Messe Frankfurt remarked, “It is important for our customers that we make a decision at an early date, as it would otherwise be time for them to begin investing in their trade fair presentations. Messe Frankfurt will continue working closely with its customers to ensure that its decisions serve the interests of the exhibiting industries.”
Now that it is not only governments are tightening travel restrictions, but also companies, the latest pandemic developments are causing growing uncertainty among trade fair customers.
Messe Frankfurt has already organised 13 large trade fairs at various locations in China since the crisis began. Unfortunately, however, it is not possible to hold such events in Germany at present. This is in spite of the fact that exhibition halls are among the safest enclosed buildings in which people can spend time without being subjected to an increased risk of infection. The halls can be continuously resupplied with fresh air, and in conjunction with the measures included in our extensive hygiene concept, people could safely do business in person here on the Frankfurt exhibition grounds.
Messe Frankfurt will be postponing other shows, including Hemitextil and the International Consumer Goods Show.
The company has promised to keep exhibitors up-to-date as events develop.