Organizers promise to create the conditions for proper social distancing, but the companies believe it won’t help
The German adtech conference Dmexco is planning to welcome its visitors offline in September, say the event’s organizers. They will implement safety measures such as improved ventilation, cleaning stations, more flexible attendee admissions, and distancing between stakeholders.
The German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which hosts the conference, allowed to hold trade shows. Although Germany is gradually lifting the quarantine measures, some visitors don’t want to come there for a mass event, says Adweek.
“The utility of Dmexco is it’s [a] jam-packed, meeting-upon-meeting, elbow-to-elbow environment. Companies can get an amazing amount of business done in a very short period of time. With the health crisis, social distancing recommendations, and lack of a vaccine, it seems to be better to wait a year and come back strong in 2021,” said Jeremy Fain, CEO and co-founder of Cognitiv.
Some conference attendees believe that the restrictions will only spoil the conference and make it lose its main sense. The ID5 CEO Mathieu Roche thinks that “the whole point of an event like that is to meet with as many people as possible, so we’re worried it won’t have the impact we’d like if they put all these restrictive measures in place.”
According to independent consultant Alex DeGroote and media analyst Colin Morrison, more than 2 000 global events were canceled or postponed. Germany is the third-largest exhibitions and conference market.
