Thanks to trade fairs, numerous international encounters are possible in a single place and in just a few days’ time. They promote knowledgesharing, cooperation and positive economic development. In future, trade fairs will remain a source of successful global collaborations that give rise to innovations.

Making trade fairs possible requires takes a lot of resources and a considerable travel and logistics effort. The aim of our package of measures is to significantly reduce emissions, energy consumption and traffic loads. Our measures for the reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) are supported and promoted by the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure as part of its “Digitalisation of municipal transport systems” initiative and are designed to contribute to the Cologne “Clean Air Plan”. Koelnmesse itself contributes far more than half of the investment of around 10 million euro.

Operating at full capacity during a trade fair year currently involves 80,000 trucks, 16,000 of them weighing more than 40 tonnes, and passenger traffic of some 3 million cars around the trade fair grounds. The aim is to digitally optimise all traffic,evening it out and reducing congestion. The booking of time slots for trucks is a decisive way to achieve this: From the moment they set off on their journey, trucks are precision-navigated with exact timing to a trade fair destination where loading and unloading conditions are best. If a truck is delayed, the time slot is automatically reassigned. At the same time, staff are notified and forklifts reorganised.

Management of time slots for trucks is embedded within a comprehensive system of traffic management around Koelnmesse. This system is based on NUNAV, the digital routing technology. It has been tailored specifically to the situation of Koelnmesse. With the newly acquired spatial data of the trade fair grounds and a specially developed management interface, traffic flows, gate and hall access routes, car park occupancy and urban traffic areas can be coordinated more effectively. The system is networked with central traffic offices for the City of Cologne and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Twenty-five digital indicators for traffic guidance have also been installed to ensure optimised traffic routing.

One of the most environmentally friendly ways to reach the trade fair is through public transport. Admission tickets for many events also double as a ticket to the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Sieg system of public transportation, and train tickets can be booked at discounted rates through a cooperation arrangement with Deutsche Bahn. Expansion of the Cologne railway hub andideas for alternative transport solutions – such as a cable car from the main station to Cologne/Messe Deutz station – are projects in which Koelnmesse is heavily involved.

Koelnmesse views sustainability as an integral component of its construction projects as well: The Confex® as a trade fair,congress and event location was planned in such a way that it was pre-certified with the highest platinum status by theGerman Sustainable Building Council. The exhibition space is also being updated with state-of-the-art technology under theKoelnmesse 3.0 investment programme, thus achieving further objectives. This will cut the energy consumed for heating byup to 30%, electricity consumption for building services by up to 25% and CO2 emissions by 3,200 tonnes per year.

We want to be more than a solid employer offering a high level of security. We want to optimise our teamwork to make even better use of potentials. We want to create the kinds of conditions that foster ideas and innovations. We want to organise work in a family-friendly way. And we want to create better opportunities for all. This is because increasing the quality of work and the quality of life improves our performance and our importance grows – as a company, as an economic factor in the region and as a part of society.

To optimise cooperation even across international borders, all of our employees operate with modern, mobile IT equipment. This improves the integration of colleagues all over the world as members of the team. We are setting standards and optimising knowledge and quality management. Regularly scheduled information events, the employee newsletter, the Social Workplace and a new training programme are all expanding and intensifying in-house interactions. With digitalisation, many things are changing faster, and we need to learn continuously. “Academy”, the recently introduced online learning platform, makes individual learning easier for employees.

Methods for agile project management such as “Scrum” and innovation techniques such as design thinking are increasingly common features of our projects and help us develop fresh solutions. These approaches are already being put to successful use in some projects.

With flextime, flexible work scheduling and provisions for mobile work, we make it possible for our employees to adapt working conditions to their personal lives. We have created a space for parents and children and offer advice to staff in special situations including assistance to relatives in need of nursing care or topics in personal health management.

With the planned construction of the new Koelnmesse office building at the trade fair roundabout, directly opposite Entrance North to the trade fair grounds, we are creating new flexibility to make our working conditions even more individual and attractive in future.

Koelnmesse participated in the cross-mentoring programme for women for the fourth time in 2019. This programme assigns a female mentee to a mentor from another participating Cologne-based enterprise. Four mentees and four mentors from the Koelnmesse participate in the programme. In addition to 1:1 mentoring, the programme also features workshops, company visits, and networking events. The aim of the programme is to promote women’s careers at Koelnmesse and in Cologne-area businesses.

Female Leadership 2.0, the in-house network for women, supports female colleagues regardless of their age, career level or position by offering lectures, workshops and networking events. This brings greater visibility to the topic of women in leadership.

Koelnmesse has a clear mission. We promote 25 strong sectors of the economy for which we organise trade fairs all over the world and give sustained impetus to the Cologne economic region. We are a mirror, a forum and an engine that drives innovation for the global development of these industries. Digitalisation and environmental considerations require fresh thinking and action in all areas, and the demands on our responsibility are increasing. We view this challenge as an opportunity for successful further development and are creating new offers with this in mind.

Exhibitors can use the Koelnmesse LeadTracking service to digitally compile the contact details of interested trade fair visitors. This is much easier and faster and leaves more time for conversation with partners and customers.

Our online business platform for the furnishings industry is called “ambista”. It improves matchmaking between exhibitors and visitors – before, during and after a trade fair. It broadens the trade fair experience and the business options to 365 days and 24 hours and intensifies the contacts established and product experiences.

Shows, highlights and posts from our trade fairs can be experienced online with livestreaming and videos on demand. There is a great deal of interest in this. At its peak, there were 500,000 viewers at the same time of the livestreamed opening show of gamescom 2019, and millions of gaming fans viewed the trade fair online through the digital offer “gamescom now”.

The concentrated expertise and extensive global influence of our trade fair events make us an important driver for manysectors of the economy. Yet the pace of new developments and change is accelerating. That is why we enlist new methods andareas of expertise to implement futureoriented ideas and concepts.

Die DMEXCO is a good example of this. The experience of the latest digital trends was supplemented with an important dimension last year. Sustainable action, CO2 offsets and a return to taking a stronger stand in marketing all play a decisive role. In a first project, with the social business “Treedom”, donations were generated and trees were planted in Kenya. These trees will store around one million kilogrammes of CO2 – an initiative that will be ongoing.

With platforms such as “Anuga Horizon 2050 – Better Food for a Better World”, we are creating awareness for topics relevant tothe industry. We design special shows, such as “h+h cologne goes green” or “Future Interiors – Designed in Germany” for sustainably produced furniture, create emotional events such as “DMEXCO Forest” or “Future now – My image for Expo 2020”, offer guided tours and organise conference programmes around future topics, bringing visionaries, innovators, initiatives and start-ups together. Sustainability awards create additional awareness and shine a light on outstanding offers. In 2019, we joined our partners in setting the topic of sustainability at the top of the agenda for numerous trade fairs – that is how we view ourmission as a marketplace. Sustainability will remain an important issue for us in the years ahead, and we will use the broad reach of our channels to heighten awareness.

We invest in new digital technologies to permit our clients to present themselves to their respective industry in the best possible light. New event halls are being built, and complementary digital services are being established. A large number of screens located throughout the trade fair grounds create completely new possibilities for experience.

Entry to and success in international growth markets is part of the corporate strategy for many of our clients. With 11 subsidiaries and joint ventures and more than 100 sales offices in all major markets, we are here to help them make this strategy come true. We develop international trade fairs on all continents that are in keeping with the industry themes of our leading events in Cologne. We enlist this network to offer our clients the same quality of company and product presence worldwide. We do not view this orientation as a form of competition but rather as the perfect supplement and hedge for the German market.