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About Koelnmesse Group

About the Company
Koelnmesse Group is one of the world’s largest trade show organizing companies. A broad network of subsidiaries and representative offices in 86 countries is available to serve exhibitors, visitors and the trade press.

Core Business
The Koelnmesse Group organizes some 40 trade fairs and trade exhibitions on a regular basis in close cooperation with participating trade associations. The key industries of the Koelnmesse program are segmented into 7 business units:

  • Furniture & Interior Design
  • House, Garden and Leisure
  • Communications & New Media
  • Fashion/Apparel Industry
  • Food
  • Health, Environment, Facilities
  • Art & Culture

The Koelnmesse Group is host to over 42,000 exhibiting companies from 120 countries and two million visitors from 175 countries. The trade show program takes place in various annual or bi-annual cycles. Cologne is noted for specializing in consumer goods shows.

Other Business Activities
The Koelnmesse Group offers special services that go beyond the core business for Koelnmesse customers. Koelnmesse International GmbH organizes trade fairs outside the Cologne exhibition center. Koelnmesse International uses Cologne´s expertise in selected industries to enter new markets. Since 1981, the company has been organizing more than 70 trade fairs and events all over the world. Koelnmesse Ausstellungen GmbH markets free hall capacity which is used for outside organizers’ shows by German and international trade fair companies without their own sites, associations and purchasing co-operatives. It also conducts its own events for the public in Cologne and other German cities. Finally, Koelnmesse Service GmbH offers exhibitors and visitors all the services they need from a single source. It provides a full-service package that includes everything from arrival and departure support, accommodation organization, stand design and construction services as well as organizing trade show related functions. This business unit also provides advertising opportunities.

Business Angle / Strength
One of Koelnmesse’s primary goals is to further grow their international business side which means expanding its current schedule of world’s leading industry events. It also conducts the most international fairs in the world. An average 50 percent of the exhibitors and one-third of the visitors come from abroad, making Cologne the location for the leading fairs where supply and demand for the world market of the respective branches are almost completely represented.

The Program
Well known Cologne Fairs include:

  • Anuga in the food sector
  • The imm cologne – International furniture show
  • spoga+gafa – Living and working in the garden
  • The International Dental Show IDS
  • The Art fair ARTCOLOGNE
  • gamescom – Heart of gaming


Our Competitive Advantage

For industry leaders and mid-sized businesses, which comprise the majority of exhibitors in Cologne, these world’s leading industry events provide immediate access to the world markets. For international exhibitors these events can add substantial export revenues. The advantage of Cologne’s events are that they are marketed in over 60 countries worldwide and therefore provide a “global meeting place” to their visitors and exhibitors. By attending or exhibiting in Cologne, buyers and vendors can take care of nearly all their international business, saving them time and resources otherwise spent on shows in individual countries.

The Fairground
The Cologne exhibition center is the fourth largest in the world. The property has 14 interconnected halls with a total exhibition area of 2.8 million square feet and an additional 500,000 square feet of outside space. The center is capable of accommodating 12,000 conference participants, and is an ideal venue for trade shows with accompanying conference programs. Koelnmesse’s Congress Centre can host well over 2,000 conferences and other events during trade fairs.

Location
The exhibition center, commonly known as “Messe”, is located directly opposite the famous cathedral (“Dom”) on the other side of the Rhine, and can be reached from downtown Cologne within just a few minutes by train, boat, car or on foot.

There are 14,500 parking spaces located directly next to the halls, with direct connections to the European highway network. All major trains stop during trade fairs at both the Cologne main railway station and the exhibition center station, Cologne-Deutz. Trade fair visitors are able to use their admission ticket as a free local public transport ticket in an extensive area around Cologne during the events.

Economic Impact
Koelnmesse events not only bring a large number of visitors to the region but are also accompanied by strong economic activity. Exhibitors and visitors spend nearly €3 billion in the Cologne area each year, and some 50,000 jobs are either directly or indirectly connected to Cologne trade fair events.