The Munich exhibition center has been yawning empty for months.
Trade fair boss Klaus Dittrich also made unpleasant acquaintance with a corona infection.
Here he gives insights into the health and economic consequences.
Munich - Klaus Dittrich walks through Hall B1.
Every step, every word of the trade fair boss echoes back.
There has been a standstill here for almost a year.
Lockdown * on the exhibition grounds.
Corona * caused the planned turnover to collapse by 70 percent.
A similar scenario threatens for 2021, staff must be cut.
The trade fair crisis hits the entire region, for which the trade fair is an engine.
Dittrich also felt the virus privately.
Shortly before Christmas he and his wife received a positive result.
He found it difficult to breathe, says the 65-year-old.
In the meantime, both of them have survived the worst - and Klaus Dittrich is convinced that the fair will also recover.
But it won't be the same as it was before Corona.
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Empty halls: Munich's trade fair boss Klaus Dittrich hopes to return to face-to-face events soon.
© Marcus sleep
Mr. Dittrich: Christmas was not a celebration of joy for you and your wife.
Dittrich:
I tested positive a week before Christmas.
It broke out on my wife four days earlier.
We both said: we've never been so sick.
It took us three weeks to get up halfway.
I've only been back on board at the fair for two and a half weeks, but still not at one hundred percent.
Was the course severe?
Dittrich:
I was still doing sports that day - two hours later I was bedridden.
I had insane body aches and took five or six pain pills a day to be able to lie down without pain.
I was extremely dull, and when I got up I felt like I was wearing a leaden suit that weighs three times what I normally wear.
For several days I had a very high fever, runny nose, cough, difficulty breathing, dizziness * - the full program.
If the doctor says: If it gets worse, you have to go to the clinic, then you will be different.
A feeling of fear ...
Dittrich:
The thought of death from suffocation comes close.
We weren't in the clinic, but had to make sure we could breathe.
I'm slowly doing some sport on the spinning bike again.
But the effects of the disease keep you occupied for longer.
Do you know where you got the virus?
Dittrich:
About school-age children.
That's pretty sure.
Has the disease changed you?
Dittrich:
You become more humble - and thoughtful.
Corona has shown how pronounced people's egoism can be, with illegal parties or demos without a mask.
It's depressing.
On the other hand, I experienced a lot of solidarity.
To look not only at yourself but also at others.
I hope this solidarity will endure.
Because actually the state of uncertainty that we now have is the normal state in human history.
I think it was rather the exception that we had so many years of unbroken growth.
But I remain optimistic.
We can master this challenge together.
Corona has also left its mark on Messe München.
How does it feel to stand in an empty exhibition hall?
Dittrich:
Painful.
Especially when you consider that athletes' life would have simmered here last week.
The ISPO could only take place online.
That is bitter.
The good thing is: all customers are keen to meet in person.
We hear that from all sides.
Everyone is looking forward to romping around at trade fairs again.
Nobody says trade fairs are being phased out.
Since when has the fair been paralyzed?
Dittrich:
The last in-house event was “Command Control” on March 2nd.
There was a brief flare-up of trade fair activity in September when trade fairs were permitted again.
We had the “TrendSet” and two congresses.
Then it was over again.
How hard did Corona hit the fair?
Dittrich:
We had a mega record year in 2019, and we moved up to fifth place among trade fair organizers worldwide.
2020 also got off to a very good start, for example with the ISPO.
Then it started suddenly.
That was a brutal landing.
We lost almost all of our planned sales - around 70 percent.
That is over 200 million euros.
Nobody expected that.
The fair has 1200 employees worldwide, including around 800 in Munich.
It has to be dismantled ...
Dittrich:
We tried everything: drastically cut material costs, put employees on short-time work *, took out new loans to secure liquidity, and transferred profits from China to Munich *.
We have assigned 80 employees to process the November aid applications to the Chamber of Industry and Commerce - a win-win situation: the employees can work full time, we save our wages.
But none of that was enough and we have to cut a quarter of the jobs in Munich.
In addition, the management is to be halved and hierarchical levels are removed.
Discussions are currently ongoing with the works council to find amicable solutions on severance payments and early retirement.
Resignations are the very last resort.
They assume that Corona will stay with us ...
Dittrich:
The virus will stay.
The question is: how can you make it manageable?
We have many leading international trade fairs, so it's also crucial: What are the travel restrictions?
If you can't travel, I don't have to go to mass.
Does the trade fair have to reinvent itself with Corona?
Dittrich:
The future will look different from what we imagined.
Corona was a turbo accelerator for developments that were already emerging.
Especially digitization.
And it questioned things that were taken for granted.
I also flew to Shanghai for meetings for eleven hours before Corona.
I will definitely not do that anymore.
What does digitization mean for the trade fair?
Dittrich:
We started to set up digitally ten years ago.
Above all at ISPO, where we said: four days of the trade fair are not enough, we need year-round digital offers for our customers.
We have had our own division that has been developing digital products for four years.
Corona has given us another enormous boost.
We have set up 15 digital platforms since March to replace canceled trade fairs.
However, we will now dissolve the division in order to anchor digital competence broadly and deeply throughout the company.
How do you have to imagine such a digital trade fair?
Dittrich:
There is a digital exhibition area where companies can present themselves and their products.
There are contacts who can be used to make appointments for in-depth discussions.
There are workshops and a conference part with lectures and discussions.
At the “ISPO Munich online” last week, actually a pure trade fair, there was a live stream for the first time, where end consumers could come into personal contact with athletes or do sports together.
That sounds like a pretty big change at Messe München.
Dittrich:
I like to compare it to the mobile phone.
In the past it was only there to make wireless calls.
Today a smartphone is the entry device into the whole world of the Internet.
You can play, take photos, navigate, film, watch TV there.
Trade fairs also have to develop further.
The telephone function for us is the area with exhibitors and visitors.
Add to that all the functions that a modern smartphone has.
That, in addition to the trade fair, international contact opportunities are offered all year round and products are developed that create added value for the customer.
The trade fair more as a digital networker than as a provider of exhibition space?
Dittrich:
We no longer see ourselves only as a hall rental company, but as a platform manager.
We organize platforms - in physical form at a trade fair or digitally.
Just where supply and demand come together.
For example, an exhibitor who is not allowed to travel due to Corona can digitally take part in a trade fair.
Isn't there a risk that more and more exhibitors will only participate digitally instead of physically?
Dittrich:
I believe in the future of face-to-face fairs - and I think that Corona has even provided evidence of this.
In the past few months, everyone has learned how important personal encounters are.
This also applies to trade fairs.
In the past, it was often said that trade fairs are too expensive and are a thing of the past.
We are not feeling any of this at the moment.
Everyone says: When will there be fairs again?
Looking personally into your eyes, experiencing and testing a product live.
The presence fair will remain.
But it is also correct: Without digital expansion, it will be difficult for the space to be rented out.
We need integrated concepts.
Will the exhibition space be too large in future?
Dittrich:
The waiting lists are over for the next few years.
But before Corona we were repeatedly unable to accommodate events due to a lack of space.
Munich is a very attractive city.
I am sure that we can make good use of the halls, for example with new guest events that want to go to Munich.
The trade fair crisis is also hitting the region very hard.
The purchasing power effect for Munich in 2019 alone was 1.77 billion euros, for Bavaria 2.6 billion.
Will the trade fair break away as a motor in the region?
Dittrich:
It's true: one euro in trade fair sales creates ten more euros with third parties.
Unfortunately, this also applies to the negative.
Every euro in turnover that we lack is ten times missing in the hotel industry, gastronomy, stand construction, retail, taxi industry and everything else.
In 2020, the trade fair lost more than 200 million of its planned sales - that's two billion euros that were lost in indirect profitability with third parties.
But everyone who is attached to the fair doesn't have to worry.
I am firmly convinced that the personal meeting will come again.
When the trade fairs start again, we will need all service providers again.
But it will take three to five years to get back to 2019 levels.
Are you aware of supplier bankruptcies?
Dittrich:
Not bigger ones.
Stand construction companies, for example, are fighting for their existence.
The water level rises considerably in all of them.
If the lockdown drags on for a few more months, one or the other will not hold out.
You have to expect that, which is very bitter.
When do you expect face-to-face fairs again?
Dittrich:
Not in the first half of the year.
But we very much hope that trade fairs can take place again from the second half of the year.
Ultimately, it depends on the development over the next few weeks, because the exhibitors need a certain amount of lead time to prepare their participation in the trade fair.
What about the trade fair competition?
Dittrich:
There could be a consolidation in the international trade fair business - with partnerships and acquisitions.
The prices are falling.
It's a phase in which you can expand your portfolio quite well.
We have already bought or participated in events in the past, such as the start-up event “Bits & Pretzels”.
We are looking towards digital competence.
Because we are perfect trade fair organizers, but not all of them trust us to build perfect digital platforms.
In the crisis, however, our financial options are limited.
How long can we survive the lockdown economically?
Dittrich:
The economic consequences of the lockdown are becoming more and more obvious.
But if we loosen up too quickly, the collateral damage is devastating.
It is important to win the people over to the measures.
We are not a police state and not a dictatorship like in China, where cities with millions of people are locked overnight.
That is not possible in a democracy.
Politicians must therefore agree on the most uniform rules of the game.
Are you already planning a vacation despite Corona?
Dittrich:
Yes.
We said: we just plan, that alone is a lot of fun.
Greece * is an issue, Lapland, maybe skiing after all.
Let's see if the infection numbers allow it.
Interview: Wolfgang Hauskrecht
* tz.de and merkur.de are part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editorial network
List of rubric lists: © Marcus Schlaf