{"id":51035,"date":"2020-03-16T17:07:47","date_gmt":"2020-03-16T16:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.followred.geopard-digital.com\/interview-itb-hannover-messe-sxsw-are-trade-fairs-dying-out-now\/"},"modified":"2020-03-16T17:07:47","modified_gmt":"2020-03-16T16:07:47","slug":"interview-itb-hannover-messe-sxsw-are-trade-fairs-dying-out-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/followred.com\/en\/interview-itb-hannover-messe-sxsw-are-trade-fairs-dying-out-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: ITB, Hannover Messe, SXSW \u2013 Are trade fairs dying out now?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stuttgart, 16 March 2020 \u2013 Sporting events are being cancelled or held in front of empty stands, cultural institutions are closing their doors and trade fairs and industrial shows are being postponed to late summer or autumn \u2013 the coronavirus is increasingly paralysing economic life. The event industry and its customers are particularly affected and are wondering whether there are alternatives. Sebastian Wiese, Managing Partner of follow red, and Carsten Wacker, Managing Director of smart7, provide answers. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Wiese, why are trade fairs still so popular when there have long been other ways of communicating?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Sebastian Wiese:<\/strong> Even today, a good and sustainable business relationship is based on an understanding of customer challenges, knowledge of the industry and, above all, trust. Therefore, nothing beats personal contact between sales and customers. The trade fair is the ideal communication component for this, because it is limited in time and therefore all important players must and want to be on site. Many companies generate a large part of their annual business in just a few days. <\/p>\n

Carsten Wacker:<\/strong> By other options, you probably mean digital formats such as a virtual trade fair. Like the classic trade fair, it aims to make contacts, meet potential business partners or stage and present new and innovative products. In the process, the meeting place moves away from a specific place and into the digital world. By the way, it is technically quite possible to do without not only the location but also the time limitation of the fair. It doesn’t take much imagination to imagine the potential in terms of costs, among other things. <\/p>\n

If you want to transfer a trade fair into the digital space, what difficulties do you have to expect?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Sebastian Wiese:<\/strong> You have to be aware that certain elements of a physical trade fair visit cannot be easily transferred to the virtual space. The added value here is different, so the trade fair design and, above all, the content that is intended to motivate and activate visitors must be coordinated accordingly. <\/p>\n

Carsten Wacker:<\/strong> Of course, a one-to-one translation of an existing physical format into a virtual context cannot be expedient. In extreme cases, this creates a platform devoid of content and meaning without long-term anchoring with the visitor or user. Nevertheless, demonstrably successful physical components can provide inspiration for implementation in the digital space. <\/p>\n

What are the possible approaches for virtual trade fairs?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Carsten Wacker:<\/strong> In principle, three models are conceivable, with different advantages in terms of time and sustainability. First of all, existing architectures, e.g. showrooms, branches or sales areas, can be digitized by a 3D scan and expanded into virtual touchpoints. In this way, a virtual trade fair can be set up at very short notice and used for a wide audience. <\/p>\n

Sebastian Wiese:<\/strong> The advantage here is that you don’t have to do any elaborate conceptual and architectural planning, because the basis of the real case already exists. And you can include other channels in the sense of integrated communication. <\/p>\n

Carsten Wacker:<\/strong> It is more time-consuming and time-consuming to plan and build a new virtual architecture. With the help of a virtual reality tool, any form of virtual brand space can be completely mapped from scratch. Such holistic planning offers more leeway and makes it possible to take into account and optimize the learnings from previous projects \u2013 also with the inclusion of other communication channels. <\/p>\n

Sebastian Wiese:<\/strong> And then there is the possibility of combining existing tools with each other and implementing them in a new, fictitious set-up. This combines static content with virtual, moving experiences and enhances them via existing channels. In this way, knowledge and information are optimally exchanged and imparted. <\/p>\n

Carsten Wacker:<\/strong> This format also enables focused and customizable interactions between visitors and between visitors and the brand\/company. This creates a bridge between a real experience and the digital space. <\/p>\n

What are the additional benefits of virtual trade fairs?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Carsten Wacker:<\/strong> Virtual trade fairs are an innovative marketing tool for the future. They not only offer full flexibility in terms of duration and scope, but also in terms of content conception, visual design and other elements such as live streams and live webinars. They are an optimal sales support \u2013 without travel times and corresponding costs. And that worldwide, 24\/7. <\/p>\n

Sebastian Wiese:<\/strong> Even though we are currently in an exceptional situation, we do not believe that existing real trade fair formats will die out. Rather, the expansion of the on-site presence through virtual building blocks and platforms enables more long-term and high-performance solutions in our eyes \u2013 even beyond 2020. We will be happy to advise you. <\/p>\n

About smart7<\/strong>
\nWith enthusiasm for design and technology, we develop smart solutions for the analogue and digital worlds. For us, the focus is on the user: experiences \u2013 feel analogue, experience digitally. We think digitally in extraordinary ideas and develop sustainable experiences and designs in our think tank that become an emotional memory. We advise and design creative stories or make your communication unmistakably smart with our UI\/UX concepts and technical solutions. This is how Digitalpower by smart7 works. Further information at: https:\/\/smart7.io <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sporting events are being cancelled or held in front of empty stands, cultural institutions are closing their doors and trade fairs and industrial shows are being postponed to late summer or autumn \u2013 the coronavirus is increasingly paralyzing economic life. The event industry and its customers are wondering whether there are alternatives. Sebastian Wiese and Carsten Wacker provide answers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51036,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","post_format-post-format-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/followred.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/followred.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/followred.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/followred.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/followred.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/followred.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/followred.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/followred.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/followred.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/followred.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}