Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
Last year IFA Berlin spanned a week at Messe Berlin, attracted more than 1800 exhibitors and garnered 250,000 visitors but as announced earlier this year, #COVID19 has made its mark on what was undoubtedly “the largest consumer electronics trade fair in the world” and in its place, is #IFA20 that will take place over three days, September 3-5, 2020, allow a maximum of just 1,000 attendees to each section of the event per day and NOT be open to the public.
It’s no surprise then that the event will have a Samsung-sized hole in it. A spokesperson for Samsung said “We have taken the exciting decision to share our latest news and announcements at our own digital event in early September. While Samsung will not be participating in IFA 2020, we look forward to our continued partnership with IFA in the future”.
In early June a number of South Korean newspapers (also picked up here by Invidis. see ‘LG und Samsung überdenken IFA-Teilnahme‘) reported that both LG and Samsung were re-considering taking part in the much reduced event in Berlin.
As we have said before, if the format of #IFA20 is the ‘new normal’ for large trade shows then I think that exhibitors will continue to stay away.
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