Messe Frankfurt, the organiser of the ISH trade fair, has said the sector it covers must “stand shoulder to shoulder and look ahead together” to make the show a success.
ISH, which is due to take place in Frankfurt in March 2021, is the biggest bathroom trade show in Europe but that is only part of the overall event. It also covers the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning industries.
Last week Grohe, traditionally one of the bathroom exhibition’s biggest supporters, announced that it was pulling out of the 2021 show citing concerns that covid-19 measures planned my Messe Frankfurt were ‘unsatisfactory’.
In an interview with kbbreview, Messe Frankfurt’s chief of communications Iris Jeglitza-Moshage, reassured remaining exhibitors that all precautions were being taken in line with official German government guidelines.
However, she also said that they were being ‘optimistic but realistic’ about other major brands following Grohe and withdrawing from the show.
Now Messe Frankfurt’s president and CEO Wolfgang Marzin has written an open letter to ISH exhibitors and the industry asking for support and making the case for the role of big exhibitions.
“Although we all are currently facing new challenges, we at Messe Frankfurt firmly believe in the economic relevance of trade fairs – especially ISH – and are doing everything in our power to support the process of economic recovery,” he says.
“Trade fairs are unique, complex formats, the value added of which comes from encounters between people. Supplementary digital formats enrich these events. And this applies all the more under the restrictive conditions, the duration of which cannot be seriously estimated at present.
Marzin says that ISH is the “driving force of the sector and an economic locomotive for the sanitary and HVAC industries and the whole building-services field” and that “the whole sector is part of the vital infrastructure and indispensable for society
Marzin goes on to underline Messe Frankfurt’s commitment to the show.
“ISH 2021 next March will be the first internationally significant event for the sanitary and HVAC sector since the beginning of the pandemic,” he says.
“Naturally, the focus will be on the safety and health of all participants and, although there will be restrictions, they will not affect the topicality of the themes and products at the fair, as confirmed by the number of registrations we receive every day.”
“Let us stand shoulder to shoulder and look ahead together. The national and international sanitary and HVAC sector needs a reliable platform that accepts all challenges and takes advantage of the opportunities that arise – and this is ISH in Frankfurt.”
For more information on ISH 2021 click here