Situated just 20 minutes from Düsseldorf Airport and in the centre of Essen, Messe Essen has excellent connections to more than 200 destinations worldwide. Essen itself is the ninth biggest city in Germany with around 600,000 inhabitants, was European City of Culture in 2010 and is currently the European Green Capital, yet it’s one of the unsung heroes.
Because the exhibition site is located in the city, attendees don’t have to travel miles in a taxi to get to the venue and after exhibitions there are hotels, restaurants and bars within walking distance, which enables the groups to stick together. This puts the site in a unique position. Moreover, because Essen is an insider tip, pricing is competitive, not just at the venue itself but for service costs and accommodation too.
Messe Essen provides a service-oriented guests project team, responsible for all the guest events it runs. This means one consistent face to the customer, so if there are technical, service-related questions or conference facilities queries, just one person will be responsible.
If desired, the team can also support the organisation of an accompanying event programme. Thanks to the opportunities provided by the Grugahalle, a multifunctional event location for up to 7,500 people, or the unique atmosphere of the Galeria, a special hall that can be used for exhibitions and evening events, there are several options on site.
In addition to the services and opportunities Messe Essen offers on-site, customers benefit from the team’s experience in organising cultural, leisure or entertainment framework programmes that complete an exhibition day and make the stay in Essen even more unforgettable.
Despite being one of the top ten exhibition venues and exhibitions organisers in Germany, the company is constantly seeking to improve its offering. In May 2016 it started a comprehensive modernisation project to improve its 110,000sq m of exhibition space, tearing down halls, building new ones and modernising others.
After the modernisation, Messe Essen will have one of the technically most modern venues in Germany, with eight ground-level exhibition halls and three conference centres directly connected to the different halls. The first construction phase including the new East Entrance (pictured) and the Congress Centre East will be finished by November 2017, with the overall project completed by 2019.
A lot of success stories have been written in Essen. Many of them started as a mid-sized show and are now using the whole venue. And the modernisation of the next two years will enable Messe Essen to offer more possibilities for further significant growth.
The topics and target groups of the exhibitions held in Essen are diverse, with Messe Essen placing itself in the co-pilot position, looking for bespoke client solutions. From the 65 shows in the company’s portfolio, ten are the leading shows for their industry, including industrial trade fairs such as METPACK (metal packaging) and SCHWEISSEN & SCHNEIDEN (welding and cutting); the E-world energy and water exhibition, which focuses on the energy sector; Security Essen, the world’s leading fair for security and fire prevention; and IPM, the world’s leading horticulture trade fair.
But with guest events, Messe Essen’s real speciality lies in growing mid-sized shows. An exhibition with 10,000 or 20,000sq m gross gets lost in a venue with 200,000sq m or you might find yourself up against another big show with 100,000sq m happening at the same time. In Essen, if you have a mid-sized show, then you’re always going to be number one.
For more information please visit www.messe-essen.de
