10 July 2024
Current News
Everyone knows what impact Uber has had on the taxi industry, amazon on retail and AirBnB on the hotel industry. We have seen companies such as Nokia, Blackberry and Kodak disappear from the market practically overnight because they failed to jump on the "digitalisation" bandwagon. Could the same thing happen to the trade fair industry? Couldn't a new market player revolutionise the way trade fairs are run? Could someone develop a simpler, cheaper, hyper-personalised and super convenient way to organise trade fairs without the traditional trade fair organisers and venue operators?
PRESENTATION ON DIGITAL DISRUPTION AT THE UFI GLOBAL CONGRESS IN JOHANNESBURG
At the UFI Global Congress in November 2017 in Johannesburg, South Africa, Gunnar Heinrich (CEO adventics & Scan2Lead) gave a presentation on "Digital Disruption" together with his colleagues from the Digital Innovation Committee Stephan Forseilles (easyfairs) and Matthias Tesi Baur (MBB-Media). Various controversial and thought-provoking topics were presented to the audience, stimulating a lively debate on the pros and cons of each topic.
VIEW OF THE AUDIENCE ON THE TOPIC
Some are concerned that this could happen, as in a digital world matchmaking happens 365 days a year across a variety of media, social networks and mobile apps, and not just for the duration of a trade show. Companies are looking for more flexible ways to showcase their products and the next generation will be looking for infotainment formats that traditional trade show organisers struggle to provide.
On the other hand, it was argued, the business model itself may not be interesting enough for such external investors. "We see many such sharks in our pond who want to monetise data that we simply cannot process ourselves. The barriers to entry remain high and the assets remain in the hands of existing operators, the danger is not that close..." As long as they manage the digital transformation themselves and don't resist the change their customers expect!
The managers present largely agreed with this. A majority of them think that the exhibition industry need not fear the emergence of new formats and market players. They think that the industry as a whole is already doing a good job in terms of improving the customer experience and providing modern tools and formats for attendees and organisers.
So there is no fear in the minds of exhibition industry executives. However, they realise that the status quo is not an option and they need to work towards providing the kind of service that amazon, Apple, AirBnB and Uber have been offering the world for years.
STAY IN TOUCH WITH THE UFI DIGITAL INNOVATION COMMITTEE
This article is based on Matthias (Tesi) Baur's post "Should 50% of millennials be in key positions in the exhibition industry?" in the UFI Digital Innovation group on LinkedIn. Stay in touch and up to date with digital innovations in the exhibition industry.
Join our LinkedIn group ("UFI Digital Innovation Group" or http://www.ufidigital.com) or follow us on Twitter (@UFIDigital). Join your fellow experts in the event industry, become part of the community and shape the future of events together.
Join us at the next Digital Innovation Group Focus Meeting: Once a year, we invite CIOs, marketing managers, IT specialists and anyone interested in the digital transformation of our event industry to a Focus Meeting. In addition to interesting talks and presentations, the three finalists for the UFI Digital Innovation Award also present their solutions at the Focus Meeting. Take part and vote for the winner.
Munich, 16. July 2018, © adventics GmbH