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Organizers of this year’s interzum hope to appeal to a wider audience with this year’s event that showcases and explores the latest trends in the global furniture supplier sector and interior design industry.
The “trend fair” will be held at Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany, May 9-12, and will feature new ways to connect with both visitors and exhibitors.
“We really see a strong restart of interzum,” says interzum director Maik Fischer. The last physical show was in 2019 and with 1,800 exhibitors and 74,000 attendees, it was the largest in interzum’s 60-year history. “As of today, we expect 1,400 exhibitors coming from 60 countries—so we are catching up very strongly with our pre-COVID numbers,” he adds.
And with nearly two months to go before the show, Fischer expects the numbers of both exhibitors and attendees to grow. “It’s very hard for us to give you numbers of attendees,” he says, “but we are hearing from our exhibitors is that everyone is excited to finally meet again in person in Cologne. We predict a very strong visitor attendance—I would say around 60,000 people for this year. And we have found after COVID, that visitors to shows in Cologne tend to be high quality in that the visitors are the decision makers for the companies they represent. “So we have been seeing more quality over quantity of visitors since COVID,” he says.
Fischer adds that interzum is only missing a handful of companies they have had in the past, due in large part to the recent energy crisis in Europe and the ongoing war between Russia and the Ukraine.
Organizers have tried to reimagine the show to make it more interesting and useful for attendees, including changing their layout and adding a digital option for the show. “Of course, trade shows are always marketplaces first,” says Fischer, “but we are trying to add more to the experience.”
“It became clear that digital events can be a great addition to physical events,” he continues. “The core product will continue to be the physical meeting in Cologne, but the digital extension—we call it interzum @home—can be very important for those who cannot come to Germany for the show.”
interzum @home will open two days after the Cologne show closes and will feature all the event presentations from the show along with some exhibitors who will also present their new products. “We see this as an additional marketing tool for the exhibitor but also to reach more people across the world,” says Fischer.
Fischer says there has been a big redesign the layout of the show, to group the three segments of interzum (Materials & Nature, Function & Components and Textile & Machinery) closer together to give visitors more time to visit the exhibitors instead of trying to run from one end of the show to the other—to make it more efficient for everyone.
“There is a big effort to address this need and educate visitors to the latest trends and insights,” he adds. “We experienced that tradeshows can also be a source of inspiration, so the education part has become more important.”
This year’s show features the theme Shape the Change, a nod to the industry’s innovation and push for sustainability and introduces a global theme of Neo Ecology. “We want to hear how the furniture industry can shape the change and help affect climate change,” says Fischer. “We want to hear solutions and ideas of how to make our world a better place.”
Visit www.interzum.com for more information and to register.
