Insights
August 2020
More… Why now for event VR? The early days of virtual exhibi ons can be traced back to 2003, when the Linden Lab launched the online role-play world applica on called Second Life. Seven years later, the iconic computer show COMDEX was relaunched as a virtual event. COMDEX rendered a real business exhibi on in a digi sed virtual environment. Since then, not much else has changed. The simula on provided in the virtual world cannot reproduce an experience close to the physical world.
dependency on that type opera on, and organising a virtual exhibi on is not as smooth as for a physical show. Enhancing the event experience is more important than digi sing the show So, why not to start a digital team to reinvent your business for the future? This ques on is so yesterday. Innova on is not just I.T. The event business is s ll a content business. Many in the events industry are praising transforma onal events like SXSW, Burning Man, TED Talks, and the music fes vals such as Tomorrowland.
Wearing a VR headset to interact at an exhibi on might look cool for some and appear dumb to others. Virtual reality is s ll an unnatural experience. Also, the technical infrastructure required to provide the virtual experience isn’t easy for the exhibi on industry. Neither are the people and the knowledge there.
5G and digital art raising business events to new level All these events are not very digital, but the organisers certainly know how to integrate digital content into the event experience.
Most virtual exhibi ons are provided by third par es, which essen ally creates a
The experience and the par cipants’ journey in those fes vals are truly
transforma ve with both engagement and interac on integrated into all the audience’s touchpoints. While audience engagement has many personal, crea ve touches, they are not organised as mechanically as virtual events with roles played by robo c avatars. Prospects post-Covid When the pandemic is over, the event industry will return to face-to-face events. Virtual shows will be abandoned and more digi sed content engagements such as live-streaming will be added the faceto-face experience. Innova on will s ll play an important role in enhancing the event experience, but won’t replace the human touch of events. Same as when social media become part of our daily rou ne, it didn’t keep us from interac ng with each other face to face. Poking me on the screen doesn’t even resemble a hug.
German Organisers Power Up For Worldwide Trade Fair Programme In 2021
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he German exhibi on organisers are planning around 360 foreign trade fairs in around 40 countries next year. This is the result of a survey conducted by AUMA - Associa on of the German Trade Fair Industry among the organisers of foreign trade fairs who are members of AUMA and the Special Associa on for Fairs and Exhibi ons (FAMA). These exhibi ons were geared to the standards of leading interna onal trade
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fairs in Germany. Accordingly, they are summarised by AUMA under the seal “German Trade Fair Quality Abroad (GTQ)”. For 2020, 375 foreign trade fairs were originally registered; due to the corona pandemic, 107 trade fairs were rescheduled and 49 were cancelled. The foreign trade fairs in 2019 went remarkably well. German exhibi on companies organised a total of 330 trade fairs outside Germany in 2019, more than ever before. Compared to their respec ve previous events, the number of exhibitors increased by 2.4%. The number of visitors exceeded the nine million mark for the
second me since 2017. A comparison with the respec ve previous events shows a 5.8 % increase in visitor numbers. Among the five events with the highest number of visitors were four automo ve exhibi ons and one trade fair for produc on automa on. With the excep on of one automo ve exhibi on in Korea, the shows were held in China. As Germany's most important foreign trade partner, China will remain the most important target market for German organisers from the AUMA and FAMA membership in 2021. Last year, 90 trade fairs were organised there. That is a share of 27% of all foreign trade fairs of German organisers. Thirteen of the eighteen organisers held trade fairs in China in 2019. The four fairs with the largest number of exhibitors were also held there.
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