We examine some of Germany destinations making meetings headlines:
Frankfurt: expanding the hub
With its ease of accessibility as a global airport hub, venues and plentiful hotel stock, Frankfurt, the home of IMEX in Europe, has all the preconditions for successful congresses and events of every size. You can even meet at the airport, where the VIP terminal offers five conference rooms.
And the city hotel stock continues to grow: Roomers Frankfurt ParkView, with 136 rooms and suites, will open at the end of 2024, as will the 5-star luxury hotel Kennedy 89 with its 180 guest rooms and four function rooms.
Twelve thousand hotel rooms are now to be found in immediate proximity to Messe Frankfurt and last year 106 congresses and conferences were held at the venue, including, the 28th Annual Congress of the European Haematology Association, a hybrid event with 13,000 participants.
In 2025, Frankfurt will host Sibos, the global financial services event.
Munich: Locations, Locations, Locations
Messe München is reporting a strong meetings pipeline for the rest of 2024, with many new congresses and the return of corporate business.
The Messe’s portfolio is expanding with the addition of the RISC-V Summit Europe in June and the acquisition success of the concurrent WCCM and ECCOMAS congresses in 2026, events that focus on future technologies in the hardware, software, and computational mechanics fields. All take place at the Locations of Messe München venue.
Corporate events are making a strong comeback, the team at the Messe says, with the Seamless trade fair for fintech and e-commerce in September 2024, and the Salesforce Worldtour in April 2024, the largest CRM & AI event.
The 25th International AIDS Conference will bring critical health discussions to Munich in July 2024, although not all the Messe’s business is events related: Adele will perform ten exclusive August summer shows at the Locations of Messe München.
Up to 80,000 fans per night are expected – many, no doubt, returning with the business hats on.
Berlin on the ball
Berlin is looking forward to the UEFA European Championships in June/July and the Final in the Olympic Stadium.
As part of the cultural programme, Brandenburg Gate will be turned into the biggest football goal on the continent. The city is also celebrating the 35th Anniversary of the Fall of the Wall on 9 November this year.
Ahead in 2024, conference highlights include ESMO Breast Cancer and ESGE meetings, as well as GreenTech Festival, re:publica, WeAreDevelopers and trade shows such as IFA Consumer Electronics Show which celebrates its 100th Anniversary in September.
Berlin’s Sustainable Meetings Programme celebrates its fifth birthday during this year’s IMEX Frankfurt and BESTIVAL, the city’s destination promotion flagship event, will break out into three Masterclasses this year, focusing on the topics Innovation, Sustainability and Community.
And a future beacon for business in the city is its soaring Estrel Tower, a landmark mixed-use development set to open at the end of 2025. The tower rises 176m and will house Germany’s tallest hotel inside the city’s tallest skyscraper. Estrel Tower boasts 525 rooms and suites providing sweeping panoramic views. It will also offer 90 serviced apartments. The Tower will add a dedicated area of 2,000sqm for breakout rooms and its 1,000sqm Estrel Forum.
Good news from Nuremburg
NürnbergMesse has been celebrating its 50th anniversary by joining the ´SevenCenters of Germany’ marketing alliance of Germany’s most important convention centres. Nürnberg Convention Center consists of three stand-alone centres with a total capacity for up to 12,000 participants. All venues have direct access to 180,000sqm of exhibition space, which all helps to make NürnbergMesse one of the world’s top 15 exhibition companies. More than 22,000 beds are on offer near to the centre.
NCC now complements the existing SevenCenters group of Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Cologne, Munich and Stuttgart.
New brand at Deutsche Messe Hannover
In time for IMEX Frankfurt, Deutsche Messe is presenting its new product brand: ‘Messegelände Hannover’.
While the core business is hosting leading international trade fairs, the venue offers a variety of spaces and full-service solutions for corporate events, congresses, concerts and other individual formats.
The venue is home to international trade fairs such as EMO, IAA TRANSPORTATION, Agritechnica, EuroTier and EuroBLECH. It has also won the bid to host ITMA 2027 in Hannover.
A site development is underway to modernise the halls and infrastructure and an in-house sustainability programme ‘Fair2Future’ aims to make the exhibition centre CO2-neutral by 2035. Additionally, expansion of digitalised services embraces visitor tracking, AI-supported visitor guidance and digital displays.
Photo: Dagmar Schwelle
