Just as with “Imm Cologne”, Koelnmesse is also sharpening the profile of “Interzum”. The quote “We are not waiting for the good old days to return. We are actively shaping a new one”, by Matthias Pollmann, Vice President Trade Fair Management, naturally also applies here. The aim of the trade fair team is to use “Interzum” 2021 to offer the industry a secure platform for maintaining its position on the international market. “I believe that we must all be aware that the world has changed and will continue to change rapidly – and with it the reality of people’s lives. But we firmly believe that with our hygiene and safety concept #B-SAFE4business, our new digital and wide-reaching tools within the framework of ‘Interzum@home’ and with a positive attitude, anything is possible. With ‘Interzum 2021’, we have prepared the playing field for the industry in the best possible way. Now it is up to the industry to use this template,” comments Pollmann on the preparations for the upcoming ‘Interzum’.

A world-leading trade fair like ‘Interzum’ offers significantly more potential for customer contact than any other analogue or digital format. Because only such a globally relevant platform can really bring supply and demand together – just as only real marketplaces have been able to do for centuries. “The future as a marketplace will increasingly take “Interzum” into the digital realm as well, because this is where we see the best opportunities to extend the reach and influence of “Interzum” and thus reach not only visitors who cannot come to Cologne, but also people who take the diverse topics of “Interzum” more seriously than before, but who have never found their way to Cologne before,” explains Maik Fischer, Director of “Interzum”. “In the future, digital reach will also be used as a new success criterion for all our trade fairs. So it will no longer just be a question of the number of exhibitors and visitors physically present in Cologne and their origin – we also want to be measured by the quality of digital reach,” Fischer continues.

With the new “Interzum@home” platform, the trade fair not only expands the business opportunities for exhibitors, but also reaches a broader spectrum of visitors. In this way, the fair offers its participants a wide range of additional opportunities for customer interaction. Here, visitors can engage in virtual exchanges with the industry, network with known and new relevant contacts and advance their business. In addition to various digital stages with live streams, there are open and thematically curated video chats in the Virtual Café, and online trade fair visitors can also experience exclusive new products in private showrooms of the “Interzum” exhibitors. Exhibitors thus benefit directly from additional contacts and reach.

In contrast to conventional webinar and video conferencing systems, “Interzum@home” offers its exhibitors not only the streaming of content, but also the opportunity to enter into an immediate direct exchange with customers. The “Interzum@home” thus offers real networking, a decisive advantage for every exhibitor.

Trade fairs thus go to a new level. At hybrid events, what happens at the trade fair location is made suitable for online use, correspondingly distributed worldwide and enriched by additional digital offers and longer availability on the net. This does not replace the successful trade fair model, but extends it. “Events at the trade fair location continue to provide the basis and develop traction as a temporary meeting place for entire industries. Because we are convinced that concentrated energy unfolds when the right people come together for a short time and the immediate, personal, emotional exchange takes place – that is trade fairs, that is ‘Interzum’,” says Pollmann. “Certainly, in these times, you have to look ahead calmly but also courageously, because just as with ‘Imm Cologne’, the motto for ‘Interzum’ is ‘You make it possible – we make it happen!’