Eisenwarenmesse - the International Hardware Fair set in Cologne - has been pushed back from March 2022, to September 2022.
Pitched as a win-win for all parties, the show organiser has moved the globally focused show to 25-28 September 2022, instead of 6-9 March 2022.
The Cologne show was among the first disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, back in spring 2020, with a last minute delay. The pandemic is again the primary reason why the show has moved, with the organiser quoted as making the shift "after the pandemic situation continues to develop dynamically worldwide". The organisers opted for a hybrid show earlier this year.
The participation of visitors and exhibitors from the Far East proved a decisive factor in this latest delay.
"Exhibitors can plan for September with longer lead times and look forward to a customary international visitor base, including that from Asia. Visitors can expect a renowned field of participants as well as an attractive event program with high participation by exhibiting companies.
"Certain industry-specific framework conditions must be in place in order to exploit the full power of personal exchange at an international trade show. In the case of the EISENWARENMESSE, this power will be able to be significantly greater in September than next March due to the participation of the Asian market.
"The Asian manufacturer and sales market occupies a high status in the hard goods industry. Many Asian countries have currently re-identified Germany and large parts of Europe as risk areas given the tendency for high incidence, so travel from these countries will be difficult in spring. Based on the experience of 2021 and as the global vaccination campaign progresses, the situation should be completely different in September 2022.
"Accordingly, the decision to postpone the EISENWARENMESSE was made independently of the situation at other spring trade fairs in Koelnmesse's portfolio, where exhibitor and visitor structures differ, in some cases considerably. And with the full backing of the industry, which needs a strong EISENWARENMESSE to be able to do business successfully in the long term.
"Long planned and thus already in the starting blocks are top-class informative special shows and theme platforms such as the eCommerce area, which presents innovative, disruptive solutions and strategies for the trade in the areas of payment, store systems, ERP, hosting, search engine optimization and multichannel. The digital extension EISENWARENMESSE @home will also be offered in September."
