Registration is now open for IMEX Frankfurt, taking place 23-25 May in its long-established home of Messe Frankfurt.
IMEX Frankfurt 2023 will reflect many of the big shifts and changes in the meetings and events industry globally. As a buying force, the Chinese market is back and Asia in general is booming, driving event demand, locally and internationally. The big tech companies in Korea are one of several factors behind this growth.
International hotel groups plus smaller boutique hotels will be making their presence felt on the show floor, many introducing new service offerings or properties. One example, host city Frankfurt, has added to its hotel portfolio with new openings including the Scandic Hafenpark and B’Mine, the first WorldHotels Crafted Collection hotel in Germany.
“At the heart of each IMEX show is a living, breathing
marketplace – the fundamental and effective way of doing business that powers
our industry,” said Carina Bauer, CEO of the IMEX Group. “We’ve carefully curated all elements of this year’s IMEX
Frankfurt show – from the layout, the education and the experiential - to
complement and enhance these in person business conversations. We’re seeing momentum
building all the time and look forward to throwing open the doors to our
friends and colleagues this May.”
Destinations, venues and suppliers span the world and
include Croatia, Malaysia, Peru, Portugal, Ras Al Khaimah and Spain. Hotel
groups Hilton, IHG Hotels & Resorts and Radisson are among the exhibitors expanding
their presence onsite as well as Los Cabos and Morocco. Sarawak, the largest of
Malaysia’s 13 states, will have its own stand for the first time and will also
be joined by the region's tourism minister during the show.
Experts from Google, Microsoft & Pinterest
An programme of more than 150 educational and
networking events begins with dedicated learning sessions the day before the
show, on Monday 22 May.
Monday’s programme is tailored to specific sections of the
event professional community:
· The complexities of delivering events in a hybrid world
will be explored in detail at Association Focus, delivered in association with
ICCA, AC Forum, AMC Institute, ASAE, ESAE and Global Association Hubs.
· A line-up of experts from world-renowned companies
spearhead Exclusively Corporate, IMEX’s high-level, invite-only event for
corporate event specialists. This includes Microsoft’s Bob Bejan and Salesforce’s
Charlotte Pedersen who will go head to head in The tale of two titans - the
evolution of event strategy and experience design. Moderator Nicola Kastner
explains: “Very rarely do we have an opportunity to learn from two massive tech
brands taking such radically different approaches.”
· Year on year IMEX’s Agency Directors Forum is redesigned
to meet the prevailing business needs of senior agency professionals. 2023’s
facilitated discussion will focus on business management issues. Hot topics are
set to include people and talent management; succession planning; business
drivers, trends and technology and new business strategies, plus new revenue
generation models.
· New co-located events for 2023 include MICE Impact
Academy, an exclusive invite-only education event for German planners, and ELX
(Event Leaders Exchange), a meeting for this two-year old community of senior
event corporate event leaders from 3,000+ headcount organisations with
$3billion+ annual revenue.
Human Nature underpins learning programme
The IMEX 2023 Talking Point – Human Nature – provides a
steer for education and interaction.
“Our industry is in the
business of human gatherings, face to face connections and building communities,
so it felt natural to focus on what it means to be human in the 21st century”, said Bauer. “When we meet in person something special happens – from driving business growth
to developing relationships that span the world. This need to come together and
meet is an innate to our human nature.
“Our Talking Point also helps to deliver a positivity boost
- we’re focusing on what’s good, constructive and loving about human nature;
about our potential and ability to change, adapt and thrive in supportive and
co-operative ways.”
Event Marketing is a new addition to the education tracks, joining Technology
and Innovation; Trends and Research and Experience Design. A new Business Practices track will include the ever-popular
Event Planner Toolkit while a People and Planet track will specifically address
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), Professional and Personal Development,
Leadership, Culture and Engagement, Wellbeing and Sustainability.
Children as crisis management teachers
New headline sessions will feature contributions from values
and human behaviour expert David Allison, while international crisis leader Thomas Lahnthaler will talk
about building successful remote teams. He’ll also join Eszter
Mattiassich-Aszody, head of global events at Siemens Healthineers to explore
leadership and life lessons from children.
Lahnthaler said: “Observing my children is looking at crisis
managers in action. The skills that children execute daily are what we as
adults have somehow unlearned because of our experience. I want to share these
skills that we’ve forgotten how to use.”
The Listening Lab returns with both education sessions and
bookable one-to-one coaching. Sessions will explore how people’s individual
nature’s influence their professional personas.
Dawn Wray, coach and co-founder of The
Listening Collective, said: “Everything’s connected. It’s impossible to
disconnect the person and the work issue from who they are and how they show up
in the world. We’re learning that people may say to us ‘I want to work on my
presentation skills’, for example. But once they start talking, they talk more
about how they feel when they’re presenting.”
New, single IMEX account
IMEX has also redesigned the online registration process for
its shows. With a focus on improved marketing tools and business insights for
exhibitors, to more and better connection opportunities for all attendee types,
the new process means every participant has a single IMEX account for both
shows. Pre-scheduled appointment functionality has been enhanced while the IMEX
app has also been improved. The result is a faster customer journey intended to
connect buyers and exhibitors to each other in a way that boosts business and
networking return.
This year's show is also promising attendees a few
surprises - the IMEX Group is set to evolve even further, with more details to
be revealed onsite.
“While we’re always focused on innovation, business value and experiential development, we’re still careful to ensure that IMEX Frankfurt 2023 is a physically and emotionally safe experience for all”, added Bauer. “Health and safety remain high priorities for us and, as the world and event attendees continue to demand more sustainable events, we’ll also share IMEX’s legacy and learnings while cheering the industry on to do more, and with more urgency.”
Registration for IMEX Frankfurt is open here.
