Kai Hattendorf is Managing Director and CEO of UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry. He is responsible for UFI activities and events globally, as well as the operation of its Paris headquarters and the offices and presences in Bogota, Brussels, Dubai, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
The year 2024 will go into the history books as the best year the global exhibition industry has ever recorded, measured by revenues—topping out an astonishing comeback after the global pandemic. Investors remain eager to put money into our industry’s core business model of connecting people for trade and innovation, but the future will see challenges escalate, existing developments pick up speed, and complexities grow.
So, what lies in store for 2025? Once again, the UFI team has been listening to and talking with UFI members and industry leaders worldwide to get their views on what lies ahead next year. Here, short but not always sweet, is our view on the trends that will shape the next 12 to 18 months.
Customer focus has been – well – in focus, driven by additional data insights into exhibitors’ and visitors’ needs and wants. Post-pandemic average NPS scores for events remain stable and well above earlier levels, showing that we have made progress. Advances in technology speed up additional opportunities. As an industry, we benefit from the skills many managers have brought from other industries to drive this evolution. It changes how we think and work. To anyone looking for a real-life example of the tried and tested “you have to keep running to stand still” – here it is.
2025 will see much more structured reporting on decarbonization processes as measurement protocols are rolled out and the pressure grows to show tangible progress. In some markets, the climate challenge will take a back seat – others will seek to seize this opportunity to advance the march toward net zero carbon events. In addition, we see one worrying trend that will intensify: Business operations will increasingly be impacted by severe weather events. These will impact running costs, attendee travel, and infrastructure availability, all of which will hit the organizer’s bottom line.
GenAI has become widely used within just 18 months, and it continues to advance extremely fast. On the one hand, this strengthens the role of authentic face-to-face events as one of the remaining channels for trusted exchange. On the other hand, it changes sourcing processes as well as marketing and sales activities. One example: AI-generated content has already become a commodity, and it is growing to become a wave of epic size. Until recently, content was king. Not anymore. Now, “contact is king.” Real contact and exchange. We must promote and market this fact much more in the future.
Our industry builds marketplaces and meeting places for every sector. A growing number of governments understand our industry’s strategic value, while for others, trade show attendees are mainly (business) tourists who are there to spend money on hotels and restaurants. So, while we see some success in changing our industry’s perception and positioning – especially in fast-growing countries with ambitious governments – much more remains to be done.
While our industry thrives on stability for scheduling and planning, external disruptions are becoming increasingly common. From “black swan” shocks like the pandemic to political tensions and severe weather events, our sector’s skills of agility and adaptation will become even more important. Organizations and stakeholders across our industry must review and expand their capabilities to monitor and quickly respond to fast-changing situations.
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