WILL THE TRADE FAIR INDUSTRY BE THE NEXT TO BE UBERISED?

Everyone knows the impact Uber had on the taxi industry, amazon on retail and AirBnB on the hotel industry. We have seen companies like Nokia, Blackberry and Kodak disappear from the market virtually overnight because they failed to jump on the “digitalisation” bandwagon. Could the same thing happen to the exhibition industry? Couldn’t a new entrant revolutionise the way trade fairs are run? Could someone come up with a simpler, cheaper, hyper-personalised and super-practical way to organise fairs without the traditional fair organisers and site operators?

Auf dem UFI Global Congress im November 2017 in Johannesburg, Südafrika, hielt Gunnar Heinrich (CEO adventics & Scan2Lead) gemeinsam mit seinen Kollegen aus dem Digital Innovation Committee Stephan Forseilles (easyfairs) und Matthias Tesi Baur (MBB-Media) einen Vortrag zum Thema “Digital Disruption”. Various controversial and thought-provoking topics were presented to the audience, stimulating a lively debate on the pros and cons of each topic.

Some are concerned that this could happen because in a digital world matchmaking happens 365 days a year through a variety of media, social networks and mobile apps, not just for the duration of a trade fair. Companies are looking for more flexible ways to showcase their products and the next generation will be looking for infotainment formats that traditional trade show organisers struggle to provide.

On the other hand, it was argued, the business model itself may not be interesting enough for such external investors. “We see many such sharks in our pond who want to monetise data that we simply cannot process ourselves. The barriers to entry remain high and the assets remain in the hands of existing operators, the threat is not that close…” As long as they manage the digital transformation themselves and do not resist the change their customers expect!

The executives present largely agreed with this. A majority of them think that the exhibition industry does not need to fear the emergence of new formats and market players. They think that the industry as a whole is already doing a good job in terms of improving the customer experience and providing modern tools and formats for participants and organisers.

Accordingly, there is no fear in the minds of exhibition industry executives. Nevertheless, they are aware that the status quo is not an option and that they need to work towards providing the kind of service that amazon, Apple, AirBnB and Uber have been offering the world for years.

This article is based on Stephan Forseille’s post “Is the exhibition industry the next to be Uberized?” in the UFI Digital Innovation group on LinkedIn. Stay in touch and up to date with digital innovations in the exhibition industry.

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