Annual Report 2020
Organising knowledge transfers to ensure that innovation keeps growing
Creating experiences, connecting people, managing knowledge. Our Annual Report 2020 is named for the third ingredient in our formula that defines the future and focuses on this key function of our trade fairs and congresses worldwide.
In order to continue to offer our customers and partners the much-needed platforms for exchange and knowledge transfer, we are developing digital and hybrid formats. With these, we reached over 17,000 registered participants in the second half of 2020 alone.
Esteemed Exhibitors and Visitors,
Clients and Partners,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
The COVID-19 pandemic – with the associated cancellations and postponements of trade fairs and conferences – confronted the NürnbergMesse Group with unprecedented challenges in 2020.
For our company, 2020 was not only a year of crisis, but also a year of learning. We derive three central insights from the developments of the past year: People want to exchange ideas, so there will always be trade fairs. After Corona, trade fairs will be different than before. And trade fairs will be neither analogue nor digital, but hybrid!
In order to offer its customers and partners the important platforms for knowledge transfer even during the pandemic, NürnbergMesse has developed its own digital events and platforms. As the first completely virtual live event of NürnbergMesse, MedtecLIVE started at the end of June 2020.
"I am convinced that there are also digital answers for all functions of a trade fair - knowledge exchange, product presentation, networking."
Dr Martin Kassubek, Vice President Corporate and Digital Development (CDD), talks in an interview about the challenges posed by the pandemic, the transformation of the trade fair business model and the new, hybrid event concepts.
China was the first country in the world to feel the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. After long months of lockdown, the country reopened under careful controls in the summer of 2020 and applied sophisticated hygiene concepts. And the economy has been booming ever since – supported by a reinvigorated trade fair industry. By summer, BIOFACH CHINA, NATURAL EXPO CHINA, CRAFT BEER CHINA, and the PAK-iD conference were able to open as planned on their rescheduled dates.
Managing water shortages and drought is one of the great challenges humanity faces. The countries of North Africa and the Middle East are especially hard-hit, and they are looking for solutions – and they’re the focus of the new offshoot of the world’s leading trade fair for organic food. Just like the other six events in the BIOFACH world, beginning in the fall of 2021 BIOFACH SAUDI ARABIA will be addressing the urgent concerns of its target market. In Riyadh, the central hub for North Africa and the Middle East, the fair intends not only to put producers in touch with each other but also to spread the news about innovations for resource-conscious food farming and to seek a dialogue with policymaker and industry organisations.
Research is advancing at high speed, the business world is recognising the opportunities, and governments are generating the requisite tailwind. The new HYDROGEN DIALOGUE has arrived at just the right time. Experts from business, science, and government (in the photo: Nuremberg Lord Mayor Marcus König) discussed expectations and obstacles and what it will take to turn hydrogen from a hopeful candidate into a guarantor of a successful climate turnaround
As an organiser of international trade fairs and conferences all over the world, and as one of the largest employers in the Nuremberg Metropolitan Region, NürnbergMesse bears a responsibility for its employees, exhibitors, and visitors – and of course for the environment as well.
In the future, NürnbergMesse will align its actions with regard to its responsibility for people and the environment with the 17 internationally recognised development goals of the United Nations, the "Sustainable Development Goals".
Sparking fresh ideas in a dialogue between knowledge and experience at an established exhibition company – that’s NürnbergMesse’s collaborative project with Campus M University.
As a premium partner, NürnbergMesse also provides Campus M University with teaching staff in various specialties and offers internships at the company. For students, it is a valuable leg up into a career
At the beginning of 2020, there is no sign of the Corona crisis - on the contrary: the trend in attendance events in the first quarter is clearly upwards. In summer 2020, MedtecLIVE will be the first digital event to start. And at the end of the year, NürnbergMesse will make an important contribution to combating the Corona pandemic with the Vaccination Centre in Hall 3C.
Far-reaching macroeconomic effects: A current study from the ifo Institute for Economic Research portrays NürnbergMesse as an important economic engine for the Nuremberg Metropolitan Region, the state of Bavaria, and all of Germany.
Turnover
The last time the NürnbergMesse Group recorded a comparable turnover to the Corona year 2020 was in 2004.
Cost reduction
The massive reduction of personnel costs (-25 %), material costs (-40 %) and investments (-77 %) made an important contribution to securing the company's liquidity.
Transformation
In 2020, NürnbergMesse is pushing digital tools as elementary building blocks of the trade fair business model.