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 this time around, #COVID19 made its mark on the event and instead, #IFA20 saw a Korean sized hole in the exhibition space and attendees overall were greeted with a much scaled down three day event taking place September 3-5, 2020. A maximum of just 1,000 attendees to each section of the event per day were allowed and the event was supposedly not open to the public.
The organisers billed last week’s #IFA20 Special Edition as a “hybrid experience – connecting brands with media, retailers and the public”.
Whether the scaled down event was worth it for all those who were brave enough to take part we may never know but it will be a shame if the organisers don’t publish the numbers and some sort of report on what worked and what didn’t. As we have said before, if the format of #IFA20 is the ‘new normal’ for large trade shows then there is plenty for others to learn from.
If the pandemic gets out of the way then the 2021 Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin, #IFA2021 should take place next year September 3-7, 2021.
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