25 years of ConSozial: Congress trade fair constantly reinvents itself

In the anniversary year 2024, the ‘Social Innovation Award’ will once again be presented as one of the awards. For the fourth time, start-ups from the social scene will be asked to take to the stage and a winner will then be selected by a panel of experts in combination with an online vote.

ConSozial has been innovative from the very beginning and the congress trade fair for the social economy has always proven to be future-proof. Launched in 1999 with 85 exhibitors and 1,700 visitors in the Frankenhalle, it got off to a dream start, quickly breaking the 200 exhibitor mark and visitor numbers also steadily increased. New topics, forums and prizes gave the event in Nuremberg an additional boost.

For example, the job fair for young managers and specialists with 500 visitors at its launch in 2003, and the Education Forum three years later with Master's degree programmes and further training for managers and social entrepreneurs. Or the KITA Congress, which has been addressing current issues relating to daycare centres since 2013.

From then on, ConSozial constantly reinvented itself: Tandem stands as successful joint projects between social organisations and commercial companies as well as the Management Symposium on Inclusion (2014), the Care Forum (2015), the Science Award (2016), the Management Award (2017), the Innovation Park with 18 start-ups from all over Germany (2018), guided tours of the trade fair (2019) and the Social Innovation Award (2021).

Attractions such as a six-metre-high climbing wall for people with and without disabilities or the performance of an inclusive gospel choir with 120 participants have been highlights over the years, as have the appearances of prominent personalities. For example, Eckhard von Hirschhausen or this year's bestselling author Teun Toebes and Germany's leading medical ethicist Alena Buyx.

The latest attraction is also promising: the NürnbergMesse format ‘SOCIALxSOUND’, a podcast on socially dynamic topics that is also translated into sign language, has been launched in 2023.

ConSozial was founded by its organiser, the Bavarian Ministry of Social Affairs, with the intention of bringing together players from the social economy in German-speaking countries in Nuremberg in order to focus on the challenges facing this sector. ‘The aim was to promote trusting and profitable cooperation between the state, independent and public welfare organisations and commercial enterprises,’ says Beate Fischer, Director of the trade fair. And it has succeeded. ‘To date, and this year for the 25th time, it has successfully developed into the leading trade and congress fair for the social economy and firmly occupies two days of the annual schedule.’

Even in its 25th year, ConSozial remains young. This is particularly evident in the many start-ups in the social scene, which reflect the high level of innovation in the sector and are given an ideal platform here in Nuremberg.