Koelnmesse is convinced that “Imm Cologne” will take place next year: “We want to boldly take the path to new normality together with the industry,” says Matthias Pollmann, Executive Vice President Trade Fair Management at Koelnmesse, summing up the task with regard to the furniture fair. It is important to offer the industry a secure platform to maintain its position on the international market and to serve the topicality of the topic of living.

On January 18, 2021, the “Imm cologne” will open its doors together with “LivingKitchen”. Currently, 70 percent of the hall space is already occupied. “Under the current framework conditions, we can consider this a really very good registration figure,” explains Matthias Pollmann. “At the moment, we can also see an overall increase in interest in staging presence trade fairs compared to previous months. More and more the motivating realization becomes generally accepted that real meetings of humans are indispensable for the up and development of business relations.“

A further plus point: the topic of living is emerging as a winner from the crisis. Similar to the areas of camping, home office and digitalization, as well as the furnishing relevant topics of outdoor living, cooking & eating and home spa, home furnishing is one of the segments whose importance for people has increased once again due to the pandemic experience and which is experiencing a significant increase in demand in some cases.

The exhibitors can expect a trade fair with high security standards for all participants, a great impact on the public via the media and also digital alternatives to reach those visitors who cannot participate themselves, forecasts Matthias Pollmann. “Unfortunately, however, there is still uncertainty in the industry due to the recurring hot spots in Europe. I am therefore firmly convinced that we must now start living the ‘new normality’. We must not wait for old times to return, but must courageously shape the future together,” says the business unit manager.

To ensure the safety of exhibitors and visitors, Koelnmesse has developed a concept called “#B-SAFE4business” and agreed it with the authorities, in which all hygienic, medical and organizational measures are taken into account. In addition, a hygiene and infection protection concept has been developed that complies with the currently valid provisions of the Corona Protection Ordinance of North Rhine-Westphalia and the requirements of the responsible health authority. Among other things, used air in the exhibition halls is discharged to the outside and 100 percent new fresh air is supplied, so that aerosols cannot spread via the ventilation systems.

The “Imm Cologne” team continues to approach visitor acquisition with great confidence. “Of course, visitor frequency will depend on the situation in air travel, rail and public transport, as well as the extent to which travel restrictions are lifted. However, despite the current travel restrictions, we already reach around 90 percent of our trade visitors.”

In the last three years in particular, the event has been able to successively increase its share of international visitors from China, the USA and other growth markets, for example, through extensive marketing activities. Nevertheless, the “Imm cologne” is essentially a trade fair with a strong European environment. Therefore, a dramatic distortion in the visitor structure is not to be expected. “The German furniture industry, in particular, which focuses its foreign business to a large extent on European customers, can expect a high attendance rate of its export customers during ‘Imm Cologne 2021’,” says Pollmann.

“It is not only the traditionally high proportion of European interested parties that nourishes our hopes for a satisfactory number of trade visitors,” Claire Steinbrück sums up. “Following the cancellation of Orgatec, we also expect that architects in particular, who wanted to visit the fair, will now come to the imm cologne as an alternative.

The team around Matthias Pollmann and Claire Steinbrück is working purposefully to give the industry the best possible trade fair experience in January. And not only from the actual, but also from the customers’ perceived security. But they are also counting on the industry’s willingness to do business again – and here the furnishing sector is certainly one of the economic sectors that is particularly dependent on the real experience of the products and the staging at a trade fair. But both are firmly convinced of one thing: “We must now courageously take the path to a new normality.