The corona crisis hits organisers of major events and exhibitions hard. This year the IFA cannot go ahead ‘the normal way’.
Because the German (Berlin) government has banned events with more than 5000 visitors until 24 October this year, the IFA 2020 will not take place either. At least, not in the traditional form. The organisation let it be known that behind the scenes there is a lot of work being done on an alternative concept. In short: something will be organised on the planned 4 – 9 September. It should be clear that a regular IFA will not be able to take place. Every year the show attracts an average of 250,000 visitors and you simply don’t want to see so many people together as long as there is no vaccine for COVID-19. But the IFA doesn’t want to sit back and do nothing. Which is understandable, because traditionally a lot of new products and services are unveiled at the expo that always takes place at the beginning of September.
Thinking
What the new form of IFA will look like is not yet known. As we read on this info page, there is a lot of thinking going on at the moment. Probably a lot will simply happen online and a digital version will emerge. So that manufacturers will be able to make their new product first known to the world at the traditional time. And well, with a bit of luck, some of that online ‘progression’ will remain in the future as well. After all, not everyone has the time and (or) the money to travel to Berlin.
If you’re interested in the products and market, an online fair is interesting as well. And it saves a lot of money and time. And it saves the environment: less flights, traffic… et cetera. On the other hand: sometimes you just want to touch products, play with them. So it is very unlikely that fairs like IFA will completely disappear.