Coronavirus: What's next in live communication?
As a result of the series of trade show cancellations, trade show organizers, then their service providers, and then their service providers suffer losses that run into the hundreds of millions of euros. Expodata Live Kommunikation begins a series on the topic with the status quo in the trade fair industry.
After its extraordinary meeting, the Federal Council banned large events in Switzerland with more than 1000 people on February 28. The main victims are the concert, sports and even the exhibition industry. The ban is valid until March 15.
In Switzerland, the main trade shows that have since been postponed are the International Motor Show, Geneva from March 3 - 15 (cancelled), the Baselworld watch and jewelry show from April 30 - May 5 (postponed to 2021), AM-Expo, Lucerne from March 3 - 4, Giardina, Zurich from March 11 - 15 and many more.
In Germany, Metav, Düsseldorf, IT Trans in Karlsruhe were postponed from March 3-5. Currently, on March 4, Deutsche Messe AG postponed Hannover Messe to July 13 - 17, 2020. Spotlight + Sound in Frankfurt was also postponed on March 4 to May 26 - 29, 2020
On the other hand, the Leipzig Book Fair is sticking to its planned date of March 12 - 15. And the Loggia Stuttgart with its over 1640 exhibitors will take place as planned from March 10 - 12 in Stuttgart, according to the current status.
Fama estimates that in 2020 the German trade fair industry suffered damage of 1,600 million euros in weeks 9 - 10 alone and states that further damage can be expected.
Especially exhibition service providers now fear imminent bankruptcies. According to the Swiss tabloid newspaper View By March 4, of the 157 members of the Expo Event Swiss Livecom Association, 30 companies in the live communications sector had already applied for short-time working. 15 companies sent their employees on forced vacation. Ten companies had to lay off staff.
The president of the Expo Event Swiss Livecom Association, Eugen Brunner is now calling for financial support from the federal government. Fast and consistent action by politicians is now required, he said. "We need a package of appropriate measures immediately. The existence of an entire industry is at stake," he told Blick on March 4. According to Eugen Brunner, it would be the death blow for many companies if the Federal Council were to extend its ban beyond March 15, 2020.
The live communication industry fears for its existence
New cancellations are added every day. The damage runs into the hundreds of millions. But that's not all: Corona could finally deal a death blow to trade shows that are in a turnaround situation. Further, permanent damage is being done.
The live communications industry is being hit by the Corona virus outbreak in extreme proportions. "The companies in our industry are literally at the mercy of this situation and urgently need help. We are watching the social and political currents in this matter with great concern. The consequences for Switzerland as an event location as a whole will be dramatic if common sense does not return very soon," says Eugen Brunner in a press release from Expo Event Swiss Livecom Association.
The national industry association Expo Event hopes that events with less than 1,000 guests can continue to be held throughout Switzerland without disproportionate requirements. Furthermore, the event ban is not to be extended after March 15, 2020, if the situation does not worsen. The LiveCom industry as well as many Swiss SMEs fear for their existence. But not only them. The entire accompanying trade is affected by the trade fair cancellations, primarily hotels, public transport and local small businesses such as restaurants.
According to the latest statistics of the Expo Event industry association, the total turnover of the trade fair industry amounts to 760 million Swiss francs per year. Depending on extrapolation, this leads to overall economic effects of perhaps 6 billion Swiss francs. According to Expo Event, the turnover of the entire live communications industry is 2.7 billion Swiss francs per year. That is what is now at stake.
The exhibition stand construction studio Damböck from Munich speculates that 40 percent of the 5000 exhibition stand construction companies in Germany will irretrievably disappear from the market. Atelier Damböck says on March 4 on its own homepage: "Within 4 weeks, trade fair construction is already completely on the ground. It is one of the first industries that has already started to experience serious problems." Read here the argumentation of the studio Damböck.
Legal information hotline for association members
Expodata Live Communication will be looking continuously over the next few days at the individual economic effects and legal issues such as whether the cancellations are force majeure, whether companies can claim an economic loss and what epidemic insurance can do, and will be letting those directly affected have their say.
Expo Event members have the opportunity to receive verbal advice, if needed, from the Centre Patronal on labor and social security issues that arise due to the coronavirus (registration at: 058 796 99 54, from 08:00 to 17:00). The cost of the initial telephone consultation is covered by the association.
Important sources for daily news from the live communications industry: Expo-Event.ch, Famab.de, Ifesnet.org and the same industry associations on social networks such as LinkedIn or Facebook.
PS: The issue Expodata Live Kommunikation 3,4/2020 will be merged with the following issue 5,6/2020 due to advertising decline.
