Message issue 1/2014 - Messe Stuttgart

Location Stuttgart
CMT, RETRO CLASSICS, The Market for Good Taste – the Slow Food Trade Fair: Stuttgart’s consumer trade fairs are packing the halls.
Consumer trade fairs setting standards
Successful events for consumers are essential for the image and recognition
value of a trade fair. Stuttgart knows how it’s done.
mographic change, technological progress,
time constraints: it hasn’t been
easy for the consumer trade fair over the
past few years. “Organisers need to
emphasise the specific qualities of the
trade fair medium even more. In cooperation
with the exhibitors and with a
greater understanding for the requirements
of their visitors,” says Bernd
Autenrieth, Head of Corporate Development
at Messe Stuttgart. Trade journalist
Wolf Lotter goes a step further,
explaining that the opportunities no
longer lie in providing quantity but
better quality. “We are heading into an
era of excellence,” he says, quoting the
trade fair journal m+a report. “Anyone
providing quality, needs more than
simply technical expertise. He needs a
culture, to be able to grasp values and
worth.” This, combined with concepts
If you stop and ask anyone on the
streets of Stuttgart what comes to mind
when they hear “Messe Stuttgart”, impressive
architecture and a top location
are very often accompanied by two
trade fairs: CMT, the world’s largest
exhibition for tourism and recreation,
and The Market for Good Taste – the
Slow Food Trade Fair. CMT has been attracting
visitors to the region in their
droves for more than four decades and
has consistently exceeded the 200,000
visitor mark each year at the new trade
fair grounds. Within only a matter of
years, the Slow Food trade fair had
established itself as a flagship event
for Messe Stuttgart.
Around half a million visitors attend
these and other events in Stuttgart each
year. However, only because the effort
has been made by organisers. Sociodesuch
as emotion and experience, are
all too familiar for Guido von Vacano,
Head of Lifestyle & Leisure at Messe
Stuttgart. This will be clearly seen,
for example, in April with The Market
for Good Taste – the Slow Food Trade
Fair which, together with FAIR HAN-
DELN, auto motor und sport i-Mobility
and GARTEN, represent complementary
and high profile trade fairs
with a focus on sustainability. And it
doesn’t stop there. In late 2012, “The
Best Years” trade fair was launched for
the 50+ generation, another addition to
the series of events taking place in the
autumn (Stuttgarter MesseHerbst).
With CMT and the trade fair collectives
in the spring and autumn “we are playing
in the big leagues,” says von Vacano.
And not only at home. “Several of our
successful trade fair concepts have also
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