The five-day Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) consumer and home electronics show in Berlin attracted 20,000 more visitors through its doors than in 2022.
Organisers heralded this year’s IFA show (September 1-5) as returning to “full strength” with around 182,000 trade visitors and consumers from 138 countries visiting 130,000sq metres of exhibition space over 26 halls hosting more than 2,000 exhibitors. It is the first show to run post-Covid without restrictions.
The show will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2024.
This year’s two keynote speeches were delivered by Hisense and Honor. Hisense highlighted the seamless integration of consumer–centric services across all screens in the home and also announced its official sponsorship of the UEFA Euro 2024 football championship. Honor talked about foldable tech will change the future of mobile devices.
An industry leader’s summit on the Friday and Saturday welcomed top experts to talk about sustainability, the circular economy, the potential of artificial intelligence, the metaverse, robotics and the internet of things.
Overarching themes at the show were AI and sustainability and this year’s show featured many new experiential areas, such as a Sustainability Village, a House of Smart Living and a Robotics Hub.
The House of Smart Living mirrored a family home and featured seven rooms with intelligent and future-ready technologies to make life smarter. There was a bathroom where fittings were controlled without touch and where the shower remembers the water temperature preferred by a particular user, while the kitchen featured cabinets that could be raised or lowered. Cooks could benefit from an AI assistant to help with meal preparation.
The Sustainability Village was dedicated to sharing best sustainability practices across the industry as part of the drive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 43% by 2030. Miele showcased an interactive installation called Just Use Eco House to help the public understand how the considered use of home appliances can have a massive impact on their consumption of water and energy.
Commenting on the success of this year’s show, managing director of German industry organisation GFU Consumer and Home Electronics, Dr Sara Warneke, said: “IFA Berlin is back – both as a platform and a constant for the global tech industry. As an event, we showed that IFA is rapidly evolving to meet the expectations of both exhibitors and visitors. IFA 2023 was a big success. IFA under new management has proven to all involved that the 2023 edition has initiated the change that will set the direction for all future shows.”
IFA managing director Oliver Merlin added: “The outlook for next year is promising. Many exhibitors have already committed to IFA 2024, and the government of the state of Berlin has also confirmed its full support for next year’s show.”
Dates for the 2024 show are September 6-10.
• Read our report from the IFA show in the October issue of kbbreview