Live From the Show Floor: An In-Depth Look at IMEX Frankfurt (with IMEX CEO Carina Bauer)

Intro: Great events create great brands, and it takes a village to put on an event that engages, excites and connects audiences to your brand. And we're that village. I'm Alyssa. I'm Paulina. And I'm Rachel. And you're listening to great  events, the podcast for all people interested in events and marketing.

Rachel: What is up? Great events podcast listeners. What is going on in the wide, wide world of events? It's Rachel here and I love when we can do our podcast live onsite at events in person. So today we have a very special podcast guest host takeover happening from the show floor at IMEX in Frankfurt, Germany.

Cvent’s very own Felicia Asiedu is talking to IMEX Group's brilliant CEO, Carina Bauer, as well as Jamie Vaughan, our head of Europe Sales at Cvent. It's such a fun conversation ranging from what's going on on the show floor all the way to how to elevate your own activations at your own events. So without further ado, take it away, Felicia.

Felicia: Thanks Rachel. So I am here at IMEX and we've been here over the past three days. I can't believe it's almost come to an end. And it's probably one of the, I've only been to two IMEX’s, but this is, it feels really big. It feels very grand. And the footfall has been amazing. You couldn't see red carpet at one point downstairs.

So we are on the top floor of the Cvent stand and I have Carina Bauer and Jamie Vaughan, but I'm going to let them introduce themselves. So Carina, could you first start by introducing yourself? 

Carina: Sure. I'm Carina Bauer and I'm the CEO of IMEX Group. 

Felicia: Fantastic. And Jamie, who are you? 

Jamie: Good question. Sometimes, I don’t know. Jamie Vaughan, Vice President of Europe for Cvent. Let me ask you a question. It is really busy. I've been coming to IMEX, Carina will be biased, but I've been coming to IMEX for many years and I don't like using the term normal cause no one knows what it is anymore. But it feels very 2019 plus year, which is your biggest year, right?

Carina: Yes, it was. 

Jamie: So this is definitely up there you'll publish your stats probably at some point later. Yeah, but I would not be surprised if this smashed the figure. It's been great. 

Felicia: Brilliant. And I think, we at Cvent, we've gone all out this year, as you can see. Like I said, we're on the top floor.

We've never ever had a double decker stand at any show ever. But we thought it's IMEX, we're going to go all out Frankfurt, I must say, not Vegas, we're doing it big. So what have you seen Carina, of the sort of grand spectacle of what's happening with all the stands? Are you, is this normal for you or are you like No, like people are doing it bigger than I've seen.

Carina: I think people are definitely investing, reinvesting in the stands in a way that, as you say, Jamie, they were doing pre pandemic last year. We were all just coming out of the pandemic. The show was only a month or two after Europe was reopening after Omicron. That was only a year ago.

Yeah, we are definitely seeing that like yourselves, people are really putting a lot into the stands and what they're doing as well this year is rebuilding for the future as well. So we've seen a real reduction working with our stand constructors. A reduction in build and burn stands. So much more sustainable solutions for the stands. And so I think that's also. Part of what exhibitors are doing is they're rebuilding. They're saying, how do we make this more sustainable? We're regenerative and they're building these stands for the next few years. But yeah, we're seeing quite a few double decker stands.

Of course, a lot of the hotels in some of the big destinations were doing that as well. But yeah, that investment, and I think that's why the show does feel and look such high quality because exhibitors have come back very strong this year. 

Felicia: I love that. Do you think Jamie, that's showing a confidence in the industry?

Jamie: There's no question. So when the pandemic hit, no one had any choice. So we went to our digital room, our bedrooms the world opened, what was it, early 2022. But it was a little bit stale. It just didn't open the way it, we expected Germany themselves did. The ministerial, the office, the mate of announcers early in 2022 were, that was a bit of fear mongering.

It didn't happen. And then we come to the end of the year, Q4 2022 and early 2023, and the world's going to be giddy. It's all face-to-face. It's all back in person. That is to the not detriment of the digital elements because that's definitely behind the scenes, but it's been at the forefront. Yeah. It's all about in person. And this is 100% proven that point. 

Felicia: Yeah, absolutely. And you're talking about, 2022 to 2023. I feel like it feels fresh for IMEX. Has there been some new branding? It looks fantastic. 

Carina: Yes. Thank you. So for about a year and a bit, our team have been working on refreshing the IMEX brand. So they put a lot of thought into that, it’s our in-house design team that have done the work, but with consultation.

With the industry, but also with design professionals as well, in the UK. We've got some really great people on call who are industry contacts of our graphic design team. Yeah, they've done an amazing job. They've really thought about the inclusivity of the colors and things like that, making sure that, say if you're visually impaired, those colors work in the digital space very well.

And obviously what I really love about the new brand in particular is not just the modernization of it, but also encapsulating what we as a business IMEX do and the industry does. Which is about bringing people together and having the handshake integrated into the logo makes it a really special design for us.

Because it's not just a logo actually means something to us and to the industry. And a lot of people have noticed that as well. So it's really nice. It's a subtle feature, but once you see it, you can't unsee it.

Felicia: A hundred percent. It looks so fresh. 

Jamie: Sorry. I think it's really important because what you've demonstrated then, which is what the industry is doing's reinventing itself.

We didn't. And it just stalled a little bit. But we learned so much during that period of time that now it's time to reinvigorate things. And it's not just the same or normal. We need to think about things from personal experience from physical events, right through the digitization that we do there, there's a rethinking of one events, therefore it's reflective.

Carina: No, I totally agree with that. And you know what's interesting and, I'm not a designer but what I've learned is how much of a difference it makes when you do refresh a brand, when you do refresh a design and it allows you to then start rethinking everything that you are doing. We were able to do, redo all our signage for the shows.

For example, rethink the design of the hall nine and the colors we are using. All of those little touches make a really big difference to how people experience the event. So it's been a really been a lot of work for the team, but I think really rewarding this week to see it in action. 

 

Felicia: Yeah, absolutely. I'd agree with that. Like I said, I've only been here twice, but it felt really fresh. Like something about it, whether it was in the logo, whether it's the stands, something about it does feel very reinvigorated. So I think that's the right terminology. And I'll share a story with our podcast listeners and with you.

We have this stand. We put all our effort into it. We've got the anamorphic wall downstairs, we've got a digital table. We're just trying to get those stand activations going. And we had a shipment with nine boxes that were meant to arrive here on Monday. I'm re-sharing this. I'm telling people. And then, we turn up on Tuesday morning, we're like where's the staff? Where's the giant eye tab? Where's the swag? And they're like, stuck in London. And I said, what do you mean got stuck in customs? And so I freaked out for about a good half an hour of what are we going to do about this?

And then I was like, actually, we are very minimalistic on our stand. We don't have swag. We're not giving away stuff that people maybe don't need. And it's enabled the handshake, that conversation to just take place without any tat. I couldn't say it. 

Carina: It's like a barrier, sometimes.

Felicia: Exactly. And so I think it's allowed that kind of, I've almost said maybe we should rethink how we think about that sustainability and how we think about how much swag we're giving away for what reason are we doing it? Why are we doing this? So I know I've seen you do some articles recently on sustainability and wellness and just looking at things differently.

Is that something you think has happened, beyond the stand build? At the show? 

Carina: Yeah, definitely. I think exhibitors, and buyers, and we are all thinking about that much more deeply or intentionally than we were before. It's not just a buzzword. I think people are rethinking whether they need to give things away that people may not utilize and if they do want to do something on their sound, making it really a part of their destination really showcasing what they do rather than being some kind of random item giveaway. There are some amazing like chefs, like we've got TV chefs on the show floor from different countries and they're making delicacies from their country. Or there is some of the Asian destinations, what they're giving away is actually products that have been made in villages in their destination and they're telling a story about that and how you can you go there, utilize that in your event and you can take away a bit of it now. So it's just much more intentional thought about those types of things. And in terms of sustainability, generally, obviously we are working really hard to make the show as sustainable as it can be and reducing the carbon as well, because we've signed the Net zero, the industry's net zero pledge, so that's something that we have milestones and we're working towards over the next few years. 

Felicia: Fantastic. I've seen some of those shifts. We've got, I think we've got Seoul over, across the way and they were making chicken yesterday.

I was, it looks so good, but it's the kind of thing that would start a conversation, over a meal. So I think that's been fantastic. And Jamie, in terms of obviously you've brought quite a heavy sales team here. Yeah. You've got the local team in Germany plus people from London.

How do you think that's been for the team as well as people seeing Cvent at the show? 

Jamie: Two things. First, I'm glad I did cause we've been swamped and leads so, I mean we've needed to over index that. But we wanted to bring our German team together for a start. Beause we have a presence in Germany and from the DACh region.

We wanted to give a little bit more laugh cause we didn't see them much during the pandemic. So we are now having meal with Reggie, our founders that was lovely. But the team all have activations. We needed that size of team. We've invested heavy this year. We hoped IMEX would deliver.

They have delivered but this is the last day for the podcasters. We've been here crazy in two days and today already is going to be crazy busy as well. So we indexed it correctly, but we've spread the team into all our divisions. Because we're quite large, within different divisions. Any type of customer, prospect I can appoint to the right style of support.

So I wanted to make that an appropriate response. Yeah, to, to the customers. 

Felicia: Yeah. Absolutely. And how is it with your team Carina now? I met lots of them last night. They said, I said, you've given them Tuesday off. Why is that? Are you looking after them or something? 

Carina: Yeah, we coming into this show, it was a tough show, actually.

It was a tough few months. The team have worked incredibly hard and we always work hard in the lead up to the show, but this one, with the number of changes that we were doing they just work their socks off. And so Monday's obviously a back holiday in the UK gave everybody Tuesday off as well, so that even if people don't have the week off, everybody can have four, five days.

To rest, recuperate, we go again in a couple of weeks for IMEX America. Yeah. So we don't have a lot of time to really rest. So I just want my team to all have a holiday in the next few weeks to rejuvenate themselves. And we talk about that a lot in the business because, you, we can only, our best for you guys and our clients if we are feeling our best and I can see it today, some of the team that, you get to the Wednesday night, Thursday, everything's gone and you relax a bit and then you know the migraines come. And we all start to, to feel that. So it was really important.

Jamie: So don't think that's anything to do with the gala dinner last night, ending ever so late. 

Carina: I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt for a while. 

Felicia: Brilliant. And If I bring you to more of a like technology within our teams, we are looking at AI, we're looking at ChatGPT which we just released yesterday.

We're working that into our system, so it makes it a bit easier for people. So how do you see technology and maybe AI having an influence in what you are doing or what? What are the people at IMEX are doing? 

Carina: Yeah. I hope more tech providers like you will incorporate elements of AI properly into the systems.

I think up to now most of the platforms have said we've got AI, but it's really been tag matching. It's not actual AI. So I think there's, now that it's mainstream I think we'll start to see AI being properly brought into those platforms. For me, I think AI has the ability to make our tools much smarter and therefore preparation for an event like IMEX or any other event, much smarter, much quicker, much more efficient.

And that's what I want to see happen because I know that in the run up to the show, it's not just us working hard, but the whole industry is working hard in order that this event is as good as it can be for each of these individuals in the hall. 13,000 people here working really hard. And so we got to use a tech to automate processes, to make it easy, to find the right person to connect with when they're on site, etcetera, etcetera. So I think we will get there. It's been a while coming, but I think over the next three years, that's what I really hope to see happen. 

Felicia: Yeah, absolutely. Jamie, what about you? 

Jamie: Yeah, we refer our podcasters to our press release.

Because we, we launched it on open api. And there's lots of ethics being thrown around now cause people have gone. Wow. What does this mean to me? I think you nailed it. It's about efficiency. Yeah. It's about getting things turned around very quickly to give your time, your team time to do what they should be doing.

Yeah. Rather spend all this time on narrating and putting texts together with different bits and bobs where they can just do the real jobs. Because that efficiency has been automated. So I think that's a true benefit. I don't think three is, I think less than that. I think it's, if you look at how rapid this has happened. It's, you're right. It's not going away. It's just how quickly embraces us. And I think more 18 months, I think it's happening, right? Everything. 

Felicia: I've got my husband using chatGPT, he works in a church and I introduced it to him and he is I just can't turn back.

And he's, he is just working in a local church as a facilities manager, but he is using it. Phenomenally, and I know we are using it internally at Cvent as well. So I think that rapid adoption is really what's going to drive the change, actually. But I'm going to land here, I said the show looks phenomenal.

Our stand is phenomenal. I can't lie. I'm not biased at all. It's not like I helped to build it. But what have you seen here that's really been like, wow that's cool. Or it's really knocked your socks off? Any stand activations or anything you've been like, that's amazing. 

Carina: I think, the stand activations I think are always amazing. I know for example, like one, one of the I missed it, but a lot of people talk about it yesterday, when Lviv from Ukraine did a presentation, they're here on the show floor. We gave them a stand last year and this year brilliant. And actually saying to people and giving out cards saying thing, saying, call me to get a tour of the city when the war is over.

And I think that's like really touched people. For me, it, the stand activations are amazing, but this is what's special about IMEX, what's special about our industry is the human connections, the real people, connections, bringing people together and help each other. We saw that during the pandemic.

Now it's in real life, and you can, that's the feeling that you get here. So that's a very extreme example, but that's what's happening all around the show floor. And I think that's why it's special. 

Felicia: Oh, brilliant. I almost, I want to ask you the same question, but I just want to land it there.

Jamie: Exactly. I was going to say, but I think the show's amazing. I now that it yet again, but this is a facade. It's the people. Yeah. It's the industry. It's the community that we are, that you are that's come together in real life, but they seem to be enjoying it. The faces, the smiles, engagements I've had have all been very jolly.

It's just, Been awesome. It's been a really positive and we do lots and lots of shows. Yeah, to be fair. But this has been right up there. 

Felica: I could not agree more. And so I'm going to land it there unless you've got any last final things you want, any tips, anything to look forward to for IMEX America?

Carina: Just more, more of the same. IMEX America. It's a very different show. It's hard to explain why, but the people are different. The locations obviously different. But yeah, we will be focusing more on the human nature theme. I think it's interesting when we have a talking point like that, it's quite high level.

People say, what does that mean? When they come together, when they see how we've designed certain experiences, the show, and when they see. People together. As you say, it's not the facade, it's about the people. They understand what that really means and why we've chosen that as a theme. And so we'll be doing a lot more around that in Las Vegas.

Felicia: Okay, well a lot to look forward to. I want to just thank you so much for joining us. I know you are very busy. I was just asking, are you still packed? Exactly. I was just asking, are you still packed today? And she said, yeah, my schedule's absolutely packed. So I really do appreciate you taking this time to come and talk to us.

Jamie, can you get back to work please? 

Jamie: Yeah, I know. Long meeting waiting for me downstairs. 

Felicia: Perfect. Thank you for joining us and I'm going to hand over back to Rachel to close us out.

Rachel: Wow. Such a great interview. We hoped you enjoyed our interview from our Cvent friends onsite at IMEX, and of course, a special thanks to Carina Bauer at IMEX for joining us. I hope you found some inspiration or takeaways that will inspire your meetings and events program or just get you darn excited for the industry as a whole.

IMEX is so awesome. So as always, if you have any topics or people you'd like to see on the Great Events podcast LinkedIn Message me, Rachel Andrews, or send us a note at GreatEvents@Cvent.com. Thanks again for tuning into great events. See you next time.