The 12th annual IMEX in Frankfurt trade show concluded on May 21 in Frankfurt, Germany, the IMEX Group
reported last week. The 2014 edition of the meeting, it said, was the largest in the event’s 12-year history, attracting a record number of attendees and exhibitors.
All told, this year’s IMEX attracted nearly 9,000 visitors, just under 4,000 of which were hosted buyers from 77 countries. Exhibitors, meanwhile, totaled 3,500, 64 of which were brand-new to the show.
According to IMEX Group Chairman Ray Bloom — who said the show had “a more positive and buoyant business mood than we’ve seen for some time” — 65,000 appointments took place between buyers and exhibitors during the show’s three days. Of those, 53,000 were one-to-one appointments and “stand presentations,” the latter of which allowed individual buyers to join a small group at an exhibitor’s booth for a fact-finding presentation.
“The new stand presentations have gone down extremely well on both sides and it’s noticeable that all types of exhibitors, no matter how mature their markets, have made good use of them,” Bloom said. “They allow buyers to find out more about a destination or supplier without the formality of a one-to-one appointment.”
New hosted buyer profiles, which gave buyers the ability to create five event descriptions that they could send to exhibitors prior to an appointment, also were well received, according to Bloom, who called them a “driver for more business in the future.”
Other highlights of this year’s show were the IMEX App, usage of which grew by 600 percent over last year; the IMEX Politicians Forum, which was attended for the first time by Taleb Rifai, secretary-general of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), and David Scowsill, president and CEO of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC); and Exclusively Corporate @IMEX, IMEX’s pre-show event for corporate buyers.
“Eighty corporate buyers and senior corporate executives from 21 countries attended this year and they brought a combined annual meetings and events spend of $180 million to the show,” Bloom said of the latter. “Feedback from these buyers was excellent. We know they feel more isolated than any other buying group in the industry so the fact that we bring them all together for this one day of private networking and education is much appreciated.”