IMEX 2008 Yielded Strongest Results Ever

IMEX 2008 produced particularly strong results for its sixth exhibition at Messe Frankfurt this year, as evidenced by final figures released by organizers. The total buyer increase was 5.3 percent against the previous year with hosted buyer and trade visitor numbers up to 8,751.

Much of this increase was attributed to a higher number of hosted buyers attending from markets outside of Western Europe; plus a 10.5 percent increase in the number of German trade visitors attending.

The rise in German visitor numbers is largely the result of a highly targeted and extensive marketing campaign conducted with strategic partners, The German Convention Bureau.

The campaign targeted German meetings industry buyers as well as those secondary audiences that are becoming increasingly influential within the German meetings market, namely brand and event managers and business travel managers.

IMEX also succeeded in fulfilling its objective to secure a larger number of association meetings buyers. As a proportion of total hosted buyers at IMEX, association buyer numbers rose to 12.5 percent, up from 11 percent last year.

Improvements to its online diary system also led to a surge in pre-organized appointments by hosted buyers this year. IMEX buyers are free to organize their own one-to-one appointments with exhibitors of their choice.

More than 40,000 appointments were made online in the six weeks prior to IMEX, of which 30,000 were made by individuals, with the remaining 10,000 representing the successful group appointment system run by the IMEX organizers.

This represents an increase in prearranged appointments since 2007 of more than 30 percent. In addition, the pharmaceutical sector dominated in terms of businesses represented at IMEX 2008, followed by financial and banking buyers and the electronics, telecoms and IT sector.