More than 600 exhibitions and conferences are held in Germany every year. Germany ranks number one in the ranking of the world’s most important exhibitions. The Covid pandemic severely damaged the exhibition business worldwide, but the industry is recovering in leaps and bounds, with 350 exhibitions planned for Germany in 2024 in the current exhibition calendar.
Not all are international, not all are B2B, not all are suitable for Latvian, Lithuanian or Estonian entrepreneurs, but any new company planning to start export activities in a German-speaking market should take a look at the exhibition calendar for 2024. This can be easily done on auma.de by selecting sectors, regions and times.
Are exhibitions still a modern marketing tool to attract new customers? It is difficult to give a clear answer to this question – there are different experiences of entrepreneurs, as well as different perceptions of what a company should gain from participating in one or another exhibition. However, many companies from Latvia and other countries travel to Hanover, Berlin, Cologne or Munich year after year, and many also confirm that exhibitions in Germany have brought them long-standing and loyal customers for many years.
Interestingly, these customers are often not from Germany, Austria or Switzerland, but from other parts of the world. This shows the international importance of exhibitions in Germany – depending on the theme, German companies tend to represent just over 50% of the total number of exhibitors. The rest are companies from other parts of the world.
My recommendation is to go to trade fairs. Start as a visitor. To see the trends, the competitors, to imagine yourself and your product on one side of the hall or the other. LIAA organises trade missions as well as national co-stands, and this is a good opportunity to get to know the fair from the inside.
