Dramatic drop in visitor numbers at ACHEMA – How to react to the changed visitor behavior? – For event managers and trade fair planners

Over 2,200 exhibitors from more than 50 countries were represented at this year's ACHEMA trade fair in Frankfurt. The changing visitor behavior was also evident here. In 2018, with 145,000 visitors, attendance was already lower than in 2015. This year, only 70,000 visitors reached the Frankfurt exhibition grounds. That's more than half the number from 2018. ACHEMA is normally held every three years. This year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was held a year later than usual.

Despite declining visitor numbers, trade fairs remain an important platform for exchange between suppliers and potential customers. Personal contact is simply essential, according to both visitors and exhibitors. Everyone agrees on this point. Hybrid trade fairs are seen as the solution to meet the changing market conditions.

Not only have the ACHEMA organizers recognized the signs of the times and offered the Trade Fair 4.0 solution at this year's event in cooperation with Pocketbooth from Vuframe, but the organizer of the bauma trade fair is also a Pocketbooth partner!

Pocketbooth is the conceptually suitable solution for future trade fairs and changing visitor behavior.

The internet has already revolutionized conventional information exchange, which has actually improved the quality of trade fairs. Visitors can now select their exhibition stands and potential partners in a more targeted and better-informed manner, saving an enormous amount of time.

The recent decline in trade fair visitors, triggered by the Corona pandemic, is no longer a decline in the true sense, but a dramatic drop, as the following figures show:

Declining visitor numbers: Trade fairs have changed. How you need to react now – Image: Xpert.Digital

In fact, existing sales and marketing strategies don't need to be completely abandoned. They simply require supplementation or expansion.

Hybrid trade fairs and Pocketbooths are taking things a step further. The first exhibitors, such as GEBHARDT Logistic Solutions GmbH, combining their trade fair appearance with smart 3D product visualizations or switching entirely to Vuframe's interactive and secure 3D demos, eliminating the need for traditional exhibition equipment. Bürkle, for example, did this at this year's Intersolar.

Bürkle: Extended Reality at Intersolar – Image: Xpert.Digital / Vuframe / Bürkle

With Pocketbooth, you become independent of environmental influences and are no longer tied to trade fair locations. There are also no longer any limitations on exhibition space. It's ideally suited for all products, machines, and complex systems. With just a few clicks, you can create complete exhibition landscapes from your existing CAD/3D data, thereby increasing not only your reach but also your impact in B2B marketing and sales.

This not only replaces expensive and time-consuming product visualizations and photography, especially in the print sector, but also saves time, money and nerves in uncertain times of trade fair appearances and changing customer behavior that has an impact from the moment into the future.

Data is reviewed and its relevance assessed at regular intervals. This process typically yields a wealth of interesting information and documentation, which we then compile into a PDF presentation: our own data analyses and marketing intelligence, as well as external market research. Click on the image above to access the trade fair library.

Related to this:

• Trade Fair Library (PDF): Smart & Hybrid & Digital & Fairs & Events – All the figures and data about trade fairs

• Dramatic drop in visitor numbers at ACHEMA.
• Fewer and fewer visitors are attending trade fairs. Is this the end of the world, or is a renaissance on the horizon?
• Trade fairs changed.
• Now is the time to react to the changed visitor behavior.
• New solutions are needed to address the changing visitor behavior at trade fairs.