The economic impact of COVID-19 on trade promotion shows and exhibitions
The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry (UFI) released updated global assessment of the escalating economic impact that COVID-19 is having on shows and exhibitions. According to UFI, at least USD 145 billion of contracts globally will not be concluded as trade and investment events will not take place as planned through Q2 2020. READ MORE HERE
How will the trade exhibitions industry change?
UFI held a webinar on this topic where experts discussed about the excpected changes in the exhibition industry. Some of the main conclusions are the following:
– Exhibitions are likely to kick off earlier in the east versus the west.
– In Europe, there are many events that have been deferred to the last 2 quarters. The chances of these running now must be viewed as slim, better to defer to 2021, stick to existing time slots and focus on delivering a compelling event next year.
– The industry must have a standard unified approach to hygiene and social distancing that would be in place for every event. Vital for giving nervous visitors the confidence to mingle with hundreds or thousands after a long spell in isolation. There will be a cost here and an impact on numbers of attendees at trade and investment promotion events.
– The shape and size of events will be affected in the short-to-medium-term. The larger companies will be re-evaluating their need, smaller-to-medium size the cost effectiveness.
You can find out more about postponed trade fairs here
Business travel has just undergone a paradigm shift. People will come to events but only if they view them as must-attend.
The industry is going to look different and will need to act differently.
UFI is the global association of the world’s leading tradeshow organisers and fairground owners, as well as the major national and international exhibition associations, and selected partners of the exhibition industry.
Source: UFI
Image Credit: Trade-Show-2018-photo-by-merrick-ales