Conference & Meetings World Issue 108 | Page 33

Venue Spotlight Locations of Messe München: four-square behind your event So, what is the Messe München quadruple venue offer exactly, and what kind of events fits each location best? Messe München Fairground A prime site is the Fairground, which offers 200,000sqm of hall space and a further 414,00sqm of open space. It has 18 exhibition halls and 50 meeting rooms, as well as ceilings up to 16m. Big name events include baking and confectionary industry tradefair (since 1949), IBA, which is next due to cook up a crowd over five days in October 2021. Heim & Handwerk is Southern Germany’s largest fair for living and furnishing and organisers are preparing for the 25-29 November 2020 dates. Messe München also uses the facility to organise its own events, including the leading construction material, machinery and equipment show, bauma. IFAT, the global tradefair for water, sewage, waste and raw materials management is another giant, as is automatica, the show for smart automation and robotics. ICM – Internationales Congress Center München The ICM is one of the leading centres in Europe. It has timeless architecture and real wood flooring and offers clients a 3,500sqm hall and a total of 7,000sqm of exhibition space. With its direct access to 18 exhibition halls, the ICM is able to increase its maximum capacity above 6,000 visitors. An average of 80 events are held at the venue per year, and, since 2020, the ICM also offers two studio options for digital and hybrid event formats. National and international congresses are the mainstay of the venue business, which also welcomes AGMs and corporate event formats. ESMO – the Congress of the European Society of Medical Oncology 2018, drew 27,700 attendees and the Congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) 2018, 32,860 attendees. Fujitsu brought its Forum in 2019 with 10,719 attendees, while Munich’s largest start-up festival, Bits & Pretzels, gathered 5,700 attendees, who heard Barack Obama speak in 2019. Analytics and data event SMX München drew 3,400 attendees. Conference Center Nord with Hall C6 The slick operation and state of the art facilities are ideal for corporate event formats, AGMs and conferences. Multifunctionality is the keyword to describe this venue. Last year’s Internet World drew over 19,000 visitors and the expo returns to the venue for 2021. An expansion of the center was completed in December 2018 and is now a prime location with high flexibility thanks to partition walls in Hall C6. These walls offer organisers the opportunity to be flexible with smaller and medium-sized events and help make the venue the perfect place to expand an event, since it is connected with the extra halls of the Messe München. MOC Veranstaltungscenter München This venue space is the only one of the four venues located away from the main complex, around 25km from the centre in north Munich and directly connected to the freeway. It has 30,000sqm of floorspace and can host tradefairs and conventions. It has three halls, two glazed atriums and 156 adjoining meeting rooms and studios - unique in Europe. The venue is well equipped for product presentations, training sessions and workshops, as well as examinations. Above: Exhibition grounds Riem, arial view Bottom, left: Venue ICM Auditorium One major event at MOC is: IMOT, the 28th International Motorcycle Exhibition, which returns to the venue every year in February. MOC is particularly suited for newcomers who can test the market in a prestigious setting, with opportunities to flex as required. Munich: powerhouse for big industry names The city is a leading IT centre and hub for IoT, with 29,000 businesses in the sector, including Apple, IBM, Intel, Google, Microsoft and Siemens. The area is a science hot bed with 14 universities and 270 biotech and pharma companies. Finance and insurance giants with bases in the city include Allianz, Munich RE, ARAG, AXA, Ergo, Generali and HypoVereinsbank, as well as 20% of German venture capital companies. Munich has a growing aerospace industry (EADS, GE Aircraft Engines, MTU Aero Engines and MT Aerospace), while its automotive industry brands need little introduction, and include BMW and MAN. The city is also a media capital, with ProSiebenSat.1, Bavaria Film, Bayerischer Rundfunk and Süddeutsche Zeitung based in Munich. And it is not all about established names: the dynamic start-up scene offers 95,000 companies employing 369,000 people in Bavaria. Munich also has 10 accelerator programmes. Time maybe to move your event into the fast lane? ISSUE 108 / CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD / 33