Friday, 29 March 2024
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IAA Mobility grants greater public access to draw bike market

After criticism of the presented trade show concept of this year’s IAA Mobility premiere the organisers have paved the road for a readjustment that is above all to the benefit of the public, writes Jo Beckendorff.

The trade fair concept was based on the approach of covering the B2B-sector under the so-called “Summit” umbrella at the Munich trade fair center. The public, in turn, was to participate in this mobility get-together in downtown Munich with a B2C-event called “Open Space.”

Subsequently, the trade fair organisers have now divided the event, which was previously intended to be a pure trade fair in the exhibition halls, into two parts. This now means that some subranges are accessible on all days for end-consumers too.

For the bicycle sector, the bike exhibitors are all located in the B2B2C-area on the exhibition grounds, which is communicated under the abbreviation “Open Space Extended”. “Open Space Extended” is open to end-users on all days of the show.

This decision was made because, according to Messe München, “the bicycle brands see the traditional IAA B2B-visitors, who have been going to an IAA for years, all as potential end-customers – and classic end-consumers can also access the grounds during the complete runtime.”

In other words, the main focus of IAA Mobility’s bicycle approach is very specifically going toward end-consumers. This is also the main reason for many bike exhibitors to exhibit in Munich.

What remains is the link between “Open Space” in downtown Munich and the event at the trade fair center, which is divided into “Summit” and “Extend Open Space”: a test track called “Blue Lane” which connects the city center with the trade fair center. It is intended “to make future-oriented mobility a tangible experience”.

Finally, it should be noted that planning for this year’s IAA Mobility premiere will continue in full swing even after the cancellation of Oktoberfest 2021. In the run-up to the event, there had been rumours that politics would also cancel IAA Mobility, which had been planned for September 7-12, if Oktoberfest were to be canceled.

Now, city leaders explain that they can certainly imagine a mobility show at that time. After all, IAA Mobility is something completely different from a folk festival, emphasized Clemens Baumgärtner, the city’s economic affairs officer, to the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung: “I am of the opinion that we can hold an IAA. We have the right concepts for almost all possible incidence scenarios in the drawer.”

Read more about IAA Mobility in this deep-dive assessment, also written by Jo Beckendorff for CI.N recently.