Experience
MEDICA/ COMPAMED: World medical technology trade fair in transition
Going to Medica every year for our "home game" has already become routine for us in our many years as exhibitors (uninterrupted since 1997). The recent past under the influence of Corona has shown us: MEDICA/ COMPAMED has, of necessity, ventured a hasty digital run-up, but in no single aspect could it hold a candle to the original. So we were all the more delighted to be able to return to the exhibition halls in Düsseldorf in 2021.
Visitors and exhibitors can always find us together with our long-standing partner BYTEC Medizintechnik in Hall 8a in mid-November. Our sister company milani design and consulting were also at the stand and Therese and Peter had many good conversations with our cooperation partners and visitors who were interested in the medela exhibits from the consumer health sector.
In view of the rising corona figures, it remained exciting in recent years until shortly before the trade fair in which framework conditions it could take place at all. But the pandemic is not the only thing influencing the trade fair industry. In recent years, we have observed the development of MEDICA/COMPAMED from both an exhibitor and visitor perspective.
The numbers rose sharply in the years up to 2019. In 2015, there were still just over 700 exhibitors, four years later there were already over 6,200. Visitor numbers have remained fairly constant for years at between 120,000 and 130,000. The digital trade fair in 2020 caused a break: in 2021, there were only 46,000 visitors and around 3,500 exhibitors. A trend that was already evident before the pandemic is being reinforced by Covid-19. Major brands are withdrawing and the trade fair in general is becoming smaller.
We are also seeing a shift from B2C to B2B. As Markus Wild already stated in the interview in the "Düsseldorfer Wirtschaft" podcast, "trade fair" always means a fairly large investment for a company. In the last few years before the pandemic, exhibitors were really pushing each other: more and more was invested, the stands were always one size bigger, higher and more beautiful.
The pandemic therefore offered the opportunity to finally turn back the cost spiral a little, or to opt out completely without this having negative connotations. It remains to be seen whether this trend will continue or whether some of the market-leading companies that are particularly attractive to visitors will also return to the trade fair.
However, this trend does not necessarily mean a disadvantage for WILDDESIGN. The interview in "Düsseldorfer Wirtschaft" also discusses the advantages of the trade fair on site as well as expectations for the annual MEDICA/COMPAMED. For Markus Wild, a successful trade fair includes the opportunity to initiate projects together with new and old partners and to network spontaneously. After the four days of the trade fair, the WILDDESIGN team is generally more than satisfied: "Despite declining visitor numbers, the Compamed trade fair scored with its high quality and is becoming an increasingly important opportunity for us to meet visitors and exhibitors live on site again. Because let's be honest, who still drives 50,000 km across Germany every year to meet their customers in person? In this respect, Medica/Compamed is irreplaceable for us.
We are taking away two exciting topics from MEDICA/COMPAMED for the near future. Firstly, we have received an increasing number of inquiries for projects in emerging markets. In concrete terms, this means developments with a robust and simple design that can be used globally, even in difficult environmental conditions. Another trend that has also become very apparent in recent years is the interest of start-ups and innovators in considering design as an important factor for the success of their idea right from the start.
A disproportionate number of ideas were put on the table for us to talk about the right design as early as possible. Many of these ideas had an astonishingly high degree of novelty, so that one can already speak of something like a start-up jolt in the scene. And the founders are more realistic than they were years ago and plan their projects well in advance and on a realistic scale. In some cases, we were also able to find investors in our network and connect them at the trade fair. So we are certainly looking forward to some interesting new tasks in the near future.
After 3.5 intensive days in Düsseldorf, we are looking to the future of our trade fair with optimism and of course hope that MEDICA/COMPAMED can continue to be as successful in the future!
