After numerous discussions with industry representatives, 656 Editions, the organiser of CTCO, decided to cancel the first edition of CTCO Deutschland.
Although many renowned promotional products manufacturers and importers have already committed as exhibitors to the trade fair, many market players remain hesitant and large companies, in particular, confirm that they will exhibit less or not at all at trade fairs in 2022.
“Under the current conditions, we consider we cannot reach the promise we had made to the market for a first CTCO Edition in Germany and we do not want to jeopardize our clients’ investments, we think it is wiser to cancel,” said Pierre Mirlit, Managing Director of 656 Editions, explaining the decision to cancel CTCO Germany 2022 planned for early January.
“Of course, we could have held a fair with fewer exhibitors. But we would have risked losing our original promise, to offer a high-performance event that meets the challenges of our customers: doing business in the best possible conditions. Our exhibitors might not have achieved the short-term return on investment they now desperately need. We cannot and do not want to take this risk for our exhibitors. We want to remain honest, credible and trustworthy towards our customers.”
Abroad, the trade fair business has been up and running again for some time now, with a total respect of sanitary conditions, including in France and Spain.”Premium Sourcing, which we just organised in Paris in September 2021, achieved the same exhibitor and visitor numbers as before the Covid crisis,” confirms Anne Sizaret, Sales Director of the Premium Sourcing and CTCO Lyon fairs. The new start of the fair in Germany, on the other hand, seems hesitant. Many framework conditions are still unclear and often differ from federal state to federal state.
Restictions
In addition, the resurgence of the pandemic in Germany, as well as the decision to impose new restrictions on Thursday 18 November, is not promising in terms of holding a new event in Germany right at the beginning of the year. “Already the promotional products sector has suffered severe economic losses due to the pandemic. Marketing and especially trade fair investments are being carefully considered and weighed at the moment. And for many, the planning security of physical events is still not clearly given in the current context. This is why especially large companies do not participate in trade fairs at all, because they need 4 to 6 months lead time for stand planning and organisation. This in turn unsettles many other companies, which then postpone decisions, often even for traditionally set trade fair participations, as long as possible,” says Pierre Mirlit.
The absence of some big names and the wait-and-see attitude of many players also make planning for the fair more difficult for the organizer, confirms Thomas Grenot, Sales Director of CTCO Germany. And there are also indirect problems of the pandemic: supply shortages or price increases for raw materials or logistics problems have confronted the haptic advertising industry with new priorities that they have to solve first.
Future show
The cancellation of CTCO Germany met with full understanding on the part of the registered exhibitors, as the early decision offers all market participants planning security and risk minimisation. “We now consider it essential to observe how the situation evolves in Germany at the beginning of 2022. We hope that the measures adopted against the resurgence of the epidemic in Europe will be effective.
We look forward to offering our trade fair approach and concept to the German market as soon as we will be able to do so, always with the goal in mind of wanting to accompany the recovery of the promotional products and promotional garments industry, and to offer an event that better meets the expectations of the players in terms of efficiency and return on investment”, comments Thomas Grenot.
