GERMANY – Based on the experience gained in autumn 2020, the German exhibitions have now defined a service package consisting of eight components that will make a safe re-start of the German exhibition industry possible for all those involved.

Included are: systematic checks on compliance with distance regulations, the obligation to wear masks, as well as temporary restrictions on the number of visitors in accordance with the space used and the securing of contact tracking.

Managing Director of AUMA, the Association of the German Trade Fair Industry, Jörn Holtmeier, explains: “All that is needed now is a decision by politicians to allow exhibitions on this basis in general again. The standstill of the industry has now lasted, with a brief interruption, exactly one year with serious consequences for the entire economy. The next Prime Ministers’ Conference on 22 March 2021 is the right time for such a decision. For it is not a question of exhibitions taking place again on 23 March. That is not possible anyway because of the lead times in planning fairs. Rather, the federal and state governments must once again consider the business platform exhibition as a category of its own and permit the re-start as part of their resolutions now. Only then will companies be able to make use of their marketplaces again from summer at the latest.”

More than 35 exhibitions have been cancelled since the last Prime Ministers’ Conference on 3 March, and the cancellations extend now to the end of May.