Interview with Mr Frank Hartmann  

Our core competencies are industry and event know-how. Of course we are also characterised by service-oriented and goal-directed visitor and exhibitor management.

Moreover, we developed the concept of the Igedo Fashion Fairs that unite four trade fairs under one roof, offering buyers from around the globe a comprehensive, clearly segmented overview of the latest trends in womenswear, menswear, body, beach and legwear. We also offer the platform for non-branded producers addressing volume buyers and branded manufacturers for production orders. Here, obvious synergies emerge in many cases. Anyone who travels to Düsseldorf for the Igedo Fashion Fairs returns fully informed. And of course he can order the goods he needs-simply, clearly and most importantly cost- and time-effectively.

The conditions in Düsseldorf are ideal for a trade fair city: As provincial capital of the most densely populated German state, Düsseldorf offers direct connections to the Ruhr district, the Rhine rail and the Benelux states. Eleven million people live here within a distance of fifty kilometres-there is no comparison in all of Europe.

Düsseldorf is still characterised by a high percentage of international citizens and visitors, as well as its excellent travel connections. Germany's third-largest commercial airport, Düsseldorf International, transports passengers directly to more than 180 destinations around the globe. This, of course, also benefits the Igedo Fashion Fairs Düsseldorf.

Each decade was unique for the Igedo Company and its trade fairs. In the 1950s we had the awakening and with it the internationalisation. The Sixties saw the expansion of Igedo and the beginning of its diversification. In the Seventies, Igedo was able to establish itself as the world's largest fashion trade fair.

The 1980s turned out to be the offensive decade-'Collection Premiers Düsseldorf' or CPD became the primary leading fashion fair. In the Nineties, Igedo expanded beyond Germany's borders, and its foreign business still stands upon a solid foundation today.

In the first decade of the new millennium, the Igedo Company developed its new, trendsetting position in a continuously changing market. As the first and only in the world, the Igedo Fashion Fairs presents the entire spectrum of fashion, perfectly target-group oriented, in one location: womenswear, menswear, jeans, young fashion, casual, street fashion, lingerie and much more.

Two years stand out in the first decade of the 21st century.

2003: With the growing export of European fashion to Russia, the Igedo Company intensifies its engagement there. Since September 2003, CPM – Collection Premiere Moscow takes place in Moscow under the auspices of the Igedo Company.

2006: The successful establishment of Body Look, Germany's only international trade fair for body, beach and legwear, in Düsseldorf.

The concepts have changed with the changing times.

Trade fairs bring suppliers and potential customers for a wide variety of products together, facilitating business. Trade fairs, including fashion fairs, are an ideal presentation and information platform for companies. Trade fair organisers such as the Igedo Company are constantly adapting their concepts to the changing conditions in order to best serve the needs of the industry. Currently this is the search for market orientation, a comprehensive overview of the entire assortment and order-triggering processes, since orders are generally placed after the events.

Behaviours always change with new technological conditions. Nonetheless, people and their encounters are always the focus of trade fairs. This will remain the same even if the surrounding conditions change.

Fashion fairs present the fashion trends of tomorrow in a compressed overview, making them indispensable as information platform and industry meeting place. Here, industry people meet. Here, you can feel the pulse of the trade. It is our goal and our duty to continue to adapt the concepts to this quick-paced industry.

Fashion and trade fairs have one thing in common: they live from diversity. Exhibitors and visitors from more than 50 countries come to the Igedo Fashion Fairs. This being the case, we already engage in intense international exhibitor acquisition and in worldwide visitor marketing. We travel to countries such as Russia, Azerbaijan, India, Japan and of course all European countries frequently for talks with major buyers, designers and multipliers. We are currently focusing on the locations Düsseldorf with the Igedo Fashion Fairs and Moscow with CPM – Collection Premiere Moscow. We work closely with Messe Düsseldorf Moscow. With our project team and our many years of even know-how, the planning for foreign events usually goes smoothly.

Trade fairs appeal to all five senses. Buyers want to see the fashions, feel and compare. The Internet cannot offer this. The Internet does help maintain communication with customers. But the selection of order ware will make a physical meeting between suppliers and demanders in the future as well, so that trade fairs will remain indispensable.

Fashion fairs need increasingly clever concepts that meet the needs of the market. The Igedo Company is continuously working on this. Moreover, it is the duty of a trade fair organiser to motivate the right buyers to visit the fair via targeted marketing activities. This works only when the exhibitor's offerings are up to par. In this sense, the exhibitors also shoulder their portion of the responsibility. The bottom line is that the trade fair organiser can 'only' offer his halls, the concept and the worldwide marketing for the fair. The exhibitors must finally breathe life into the event.