How will the exhibition industry overcome the coronavirus crisis?

The exhibition industry has been kicked at the hart from the coronavirus since there is no better place to spread the epidemy than a crowded trade show.

Many exhibitions have been cancelled or postponed all over the world due to the pandemic emergency, sometimes cancelled directly by the authorities and sometimes postponed or cancelled by the organizers fearing the low attendance.

Now we are close to the second phase of the pandemic and we are all trying to imagine the future of our society and economy.

The big question that arises is: How will look like a trade show after the coronavirus?
When we will be able to organize and attend big events? Will these events look the same as before? How long will the coronavirus affect the event industry? Will the format of the events switch to online events? And so on and so on…

Well, as this is the first pandemic outbreak in the modernity, it is really hard to do any forecast simply because we don’t have any past information to base our forecast on.

This is how we see the situation (led by our expertise):
Online events and platforms for the matchmaking of sellers and buyers will be more and more important, but won’t completely replace the traditional events.

Traditional trade shows will no longer look the same, at least for a while. It’s hard to imagine a crowded event nowadays. Probably the trade show will become smaller, more specialized and with limited access only to a professional public, at least for B2B events. A lot of procedures will be put in place to reduce sanitary risks.

For B2C events we believe it will take a while longer to be back in shape or even to be authorised by the local authorities.

We also believe that many shows will not survive the crisis, especially if it will last longer than expected.

So, in conclusion, this is our forecast: fewer trade shows, smaller and with less public. The online events will grow and sometimes replace traditional events, especially when the products don’t require senses like taste, smell and touch to be evaluated. Unfortunately, many events will completely disappear.

This is simply our thoughts about the current situation.