Like many of the world’s best trade shows, Bar Convent Berlin started with a small a group of professionals celebrating an industry they love.
Event co-founders Helmut Adam, Jens Hasenbein, and Bastian Heuser, creators of trade magazine Mixology, were regularly asked by readers to launch an event in Germany.
But it wasn’t until 2007, when the trio was approached to collaborate on a trade show – and left decidedly underwhelmed – that they were stirred to take action, Adam tells EW.
“We immediately started planning our own trade show, with only three months to go,” Adam explains.
“I remember waking up on the first day of the show nervously thinking: “Will people turn up?” And they did. It was like a family gathering. A great relaxed vibe and everyone loved it.”
Adam says: “All three founders of the show are ex-bartenders, and I think you still feel this, our show has credibility.”
From small beginnings with just 16 exhibitors, the event has grown to a two-day annual celebration that attracts close to 10,000 hospitality professionals from around the world.
It also attracted the attention of Reed Exhibitions. In 2015, after more than a year of negotiation, the organiser acquired Bar Convent Berlin and is investigating options to expand into China.
Event director Petra Lassahn, who brings more than 25 years’ of trade show experience to the team, says: “We complement one another perfectly. Helmut, Jens and Bastian are contributing decades of experience and competence in the bar and beverage business.”
Exhibitor numbers were up 30 per cent to 268 for the show’s 2015 edition, held on 6-7 October, while more than half of its visitors came from abroad.
“Companies from around the world are carrying new ideas into our market,” Lassahn explains. “Being globally involved and enhancing the professional nature of the show are our top priorities.”
To cultivate a professional audience, the event has remained strictly trade only, with ticket prices of up to €50 (US$37) part of a strategic threshold.
And while the cocktails may be free flowing, there is no music to create a nightclub atmosphere. Visitors also have access to an abundance of free water and a street-food inspired food court.
Adam explains: “Before we started our own exhibition, we had been to bar trade shows that felt like clubs after a few hours. That has to be avoided at all cost.”
However, there is an attempt to inspire an ‘other world’ atmosphere. Visitors pass through an architect-designed entrance to reach the show floor where elaborate booths are staffed by some of the world’s best bartenders.
“They’re getting flown in from New York, Paris, London and even Singapore,” Adam says. “They offer you signature drinks and explain for the spirits, vermouths or fillers on display work in cocktails.” At the event’s ‘liquid embassies’, set up by peak bodies such as the US spirits association DISCUS, the mood turns patriotic and each year the event nominates one country to promote – in 2016 it will be the United Kingdom.
Early editions focused almost exclusively on spirits, but Bar Convent Berlin has expanded to cater for broader segments of the market, such as bar equipment suppliers. Meanwhile, craft beer is one of the event’s fasted growing components.
“In the beginning we kept beer out of the show,” Adam says. “Bar Convent is very high end and the German beer market was very conservative back then.”
But an enquiry from a craft beer exhibitor in 2011 was a sign things were changing. “We sense that this segment was the next to be premiumised in the same way that spirits had experienced in the first decade of the 21st century.”
Visitors don’t just come to sample the merchandise, they’re also in town to quench a thirst for knowledge. The show’s strong educational component, complemented by blogs and awards, comprises seminars and masterclasses across four stages, including the 300-seat Mixology Stage. 2015’s event highlights included a presentation by renowned US bartender Jeffery Morgenthaler.
“I once heard someone say that Bar Convent Berlin was like the bartenders’ Christmas, as it’s their chance to come together each year and network,” Lassahn concludes.
We say cheers to that.
