Koelnmesse affirms September date

Influx to Spoga+Gafa also due to cancelled events

During a digital press conference, Stefan Lohrberg (l.), Director Spoga+Gafa, Catja Caspary, Vice President, and Oliver Frese, Chief Operating Officer, informed about Koelnmesse's plans for this year's show in September.
During a digital press conference, Stefan Lohrberg (l.), Director Spoga+Gafa, Catja Caspary, Vice President, and Oliver Frese, Chief Operating Officer, informed about Koelnmesse's plans for this year's show in September.
14.05.2020

Koelnmesse has once again affirmed that Spoga+Gafa will be taking place from 6 to 8 September 2020. In a video statement which the event organisers shared at an online press conference yesterday, 13 May, Chief Operating Officer Oliver Frese says: "It is our declared aim to open the trade fair on the planned date. The exhibitors are showing high interest in the event and due to the fact that other industry events have had to be cancelled or postponed, we are once again recording increased growth in the number of applications."
In particular, there is a growing interest in the area of lifestyle assortments, adds Stefan Lohrberg, Director Spoga+Gafa, and emphasises: "It is important for us to say that we would have preferred for the other formats to have taken place as well. The market needs the multitude of these great fairs."
Currently, 95 per cent of the exhibition area is already booked. In case of any changes, the partners of the trade fair will be informed about possible tendencies at an early date directly at the start of the second half of the year, Koelnmesse says.
The trade fair managers repeatedly assured: "Of course, we will then abide by all of the applicable precautionary and safety measures or even exceed these with the implementation of our own measures," as Vice President Catja Caspary says. This includes, among other things, the number of visitors being checked through the admission system, tickets only being sold online and cloakrooms being free of charge. In principle, there is no problem with distancing rules for the expected 40 000 visitors on three days over an area of 250 000 m², explains Oliver Frese. In the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, trade fairs and congresses will be permitted again from 30 May 2020 with the adherence to respective requirements.
Although the topic of coronavirus has dominated discussions prior to Spoga+Gafa, the trade fair management has of course also been addressing the content-related further development of the event. Even at the end of Spoga+Gafa 2019 it announced the key theme of 2020: "Sustainable Gardens". This concept includes, for example, that the trade fair has hired a garden to the south of Cologne and has been designing it together with exhibitors and their products in line with this theme. There won't only be guided tours in this project garden, but also on the focus theme around the trade fair.
This year, Koelnmesse has somewhat modified the concept of the special exhibition areas "POS Green Solution Islands". Two POS islands will be constructed on different presentation levels. On the one hand the focus themes "Outdoor living" with an emphasis on "Sustainability" and on the other hand "Indoor gardening", which deals with the garden within apartments in times of increasing urbanisation.
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