EMECA, the European Major Exhibition Centres Association, says its members’ exhibition activity is back stronger and faster than expected and full recovery in terms of turnover will be reached already in 2023 for most members, the association was meeting in Athens for its autumn General Assembly.
Announcements at the GA included Roland Bleinroth, CEO of Messe Stuttgart, being being elected EMECA president 2023-2024. To mark the 30th anniversary of EMECA, an award for the best new show at an EMECA venue will be launched at the end of the year.
The Athens meeting also marked EMECA’s 30th anniversary. Nürnbergmesse was the conference’s official host and highlighted its latest acquisition, the Greek organiser Forum. EMECA Board members met with the president and vice-president of the newly formed SOKEE, the Greek exhibition industry association.
“2022 is a good year in terms of number of exhibitions, that shows a quick recovery for our industry. Most EMECA members will be soon approaching pre-pandemic results,” said Ricard Zapatero, EMECA president.
Some special circumstances may have played a role in those results, such as additional (earlier postponed) shows, a good number of trade fairs due to the rhythm of events in the even years or one-time big institutional events. Nevertheless, we have seen services in general and new services like digital tools develop, as well as impressive number of new shows hosted or launched by EMECA members both in Europe and abroad.
These new exhibitions are mainly completing existing portfolios or new launches in future technologies and sectors related to the digital and sustainable transition, according to EMECA.
In Europe, full recovery in terms of turnover will be reached already in 2023 for most members. Profits, however, will take more time to come back to pre-pandemic levels.
EMECA venues and exhibition business, the GA heard also, are struggling with a number of challenges, such as remaining restrictions for travel from Asia, potential pandemic measures during the winter, inflation, high costs for staff and materials, energy prices, effects of the war in Ukraine and uncertainty in general. All these effects also concern the customers, exhibitors and attendees of events.
On the digital side, GA guest speaker Fabian Nappenbach, director product marketing EMEA at HTC, presented an overview of the state of the art in metaverse technology, applications and business opportunities to the EMECA General Assembly. It was followed by a vivid discussion on potential use-cases – probably mostly for conferences or meetings at this stage.
Board elections also saw Maria Joao Rocha de Matos, general director of FIL - Lisbon Exhibitions & Convention Centre join the Board as vice -president for Digital Business. The current president Ricard Zapatero, international business director at Fira Barcelona will switch in 2022 to be responsible for strategy. Maurits van der Sluis, COO of RAI Amsterdam, will conclude his three terms in the EMECA Board at the end of this year. EMECA’s secretary general Barbara Weizsäcker received congratulations for clocking up ten years in office.
“It is a great signal that we can welcome a new Board Member and a new president for the next period. EMECA has a vivid membership with engaged members in the expert Working Groups and in the Board. It is important to rotate to bring in new views and ideas, and to share responsibilities over time,” Zapatero underlined.
