Carina Bauer, CEO of the IMEX group talks change at this year's event.
At IMEX our mantra is ‘You spoke, we listened’. We’ve introduced changes, which aim to improve business effectiveness for visitors and improve the physical show experience and many of these are in direct response to feedback. For example, we’re introducing a new food court to give more choice; we’re trialing some inflatable meeting spaces and we’ve found a local partner in Frankfurt who can help us with re-using and recycling unused exhibitor and IMEX materials within the local community. We’re also building on the fact that we no longer print a show catalogue by introducing all-paper badges for the first time.
Our overall goal is to keep innovating to facilitate powerful business connections. At our shows this year we’ll explore a new trend making waves in the industry: ‘Purposeful Meetings’. As our Talking Point for 2017, Purposeful Meetings addresses planning events with deeper meaning, innovation and insight.
We’ll be exploring this trend from many angles, including education and research and it will feature during EduMonday too, which is our brand new education experience prior to IMEX in Frankfurt, on Monday 15 May.
To back up our commitment to Purposeful Meetings, we’ve entered into a three-year agreement with EventCanvas.org Foundation, which allows us to offer Event Design Certification free of charge to selected participants as part of our new EduMonday programme. Our focus on Purposeful Meetings is part of our overall commitment to continually add to the value of the learning and networking opportunities we provide at both of our shows. We have to keep ahead of industry trends and keep talking to all our visitors and exhibitors to discover their problems and needs, and then decide how IMEX can help solve them.
