‘I have learned almost everything at trade fairs’

Antal Pelcz has been returning to Interpack for 30 years and his company, drPACK of Biatorbágy is a real foil expert. He told our magazine that he learned practically everything at trade fairs throughout the years and now drPACK won WPO’s World Star prize and became a ‘world champion’ of packaging. These days an international trade fair is not simply about companies introducing their innovative products and services, but there are high-level accompanying events too, where theoretical experts and successful entrepreneurs talk about new concepts and ideas.

Bajai Ernő

Although the world champion of exporting is not Germany any more but China, German know-how is still very attractive. Márta Kakuk, the Cologne fair’s Hungarian representative mentioned Anuga first but ISM and AnugaFoodTec are also important events on the world stage. She added that German trade fairs are especially popular because of the high proportion of participants from abroad. Last year 135 national or international trade fairs were held in Germany, where 55 percent of the 159,000 exhibitors came from foreign countries. Asia and Central and Eastern Europe were represented with significantly more exhibitors than before and according to Berlin-seated AUMA, every fourth of the 10 million fair-goers was from abroad. There are drawbacks of the Asian expansion though: Chinese exhibitors and visitors often photograph what they find interesting in detail, contributing to the rapid development of their economy this way. What makes millions of businessmen go to conferences and trade fairs in the age of Internet? The Internet made distances disappear but trade fairs still attract lots of visitors. According to Bernd Hallier, the president of EHI Retail Institute you can gather lots of information on the world wide web but personal contacts remain important. Trade fairs also reflect which trends are important or viable in food retail technology and which are not. Szilvia Máté, who represents the Düsseldorf fair’s Hungarian representative, told us that many Hungarian enterprises often decide to measure themselves at trade fairs. For instance at the last ProWein there were 24 instead of the previous 16 Hungarian participants. Most of them came from the Tokaj region. Among the 300 spirits exhibitors there were five Hungarian distilleries with a collective stand, calling attention to Hungary’s very own pálinka. Brau Beviale’s communications executive Petra Trommer told Trade magazin that the three-day exhibition usually welcomes 1,400 exhibitors and 34,000 visitors. At the beverage manufacturing, technology, logistics and marketing fair participants can familiarise themselves with the latest trends.