Exhibition World Issue 3 — 2020 | Page 37

Comeback strategy brands, 600 vehicles and m of stand booths. isers reported 23,910 vehicle ere made at the show, sales e calculated to be worth n (US$730m) yuan. China’s r Geely’s Regional Director, g, said one in three visitors new car order, with an ansaction rate of 38%, the ’s highest ever. egional Manager for Asia/ ark Cochrane welcomed from China’s government, ting: “In essence, this means E events will be able to go necessary all across China. ment does not spell out erms and conditions for this. here, this means that the nd cities will be in charge of ities under their respective on.” A leads the y for restart in Germany ’s tradefair industry has been s demands for a timetable for g exhibition business. dustry has put forward ndations for a tradefair aid Jörn Holtmeier, MD of ’s AUMA industry association, ed the sector “expects ns to be regarded as a separate event format by the German federal government…We demand a timetable for the restart that factors the tradefairs’ lead times of two or three months.” AUMA expects the exhibition business to be resumed in September and said the industry was ready with its recommendations for basic parameters in order to get exhibitions re-started. AUMA stated it was convinced that exhibitions can meet the requirements for protecting the health of all parties involved, adding that tradefairs were in a position to fulfil the Robert- Koch-Institute’s official guidelines for hygiene and physical distance. AUMA noted that specialised fairs, in particular, showed a much lower headcount per square metre than most other event formats. “Usually visitors are browsing individually through the exhibition halls,” said AUMA, “and they do not gather at one single stage or around a playing field. Additionally, exhibition organisers have expert knowledge in crowd management.” With a fast-moving and fluid situation it seems the countries where the tradefair sector is being taken most seriously are the ones where industry associations are ahead of the curve and not waiting for governments to legislate, but inputting proactively into the debate and helping to shape policy. Issue 3 2020 19