JOCHEN KÖCKLER INTERVIEW
Interview: Jochen Köckler
As we head into winter many of us are already planning a visit to Hannover for the world flooring trade show. Sarah Robinson catches up with Dr Jochen Kockler, the man behind DOMOTEX.
Dr Jochen Köckler is Member of the Managing Board at Deutsche Messe, the trade fair company responsible for planning and putting on the DOMOTEX exhibition, held each January in Hannover, Germany. With revenue of €312 million in 2013, Deutsche Messe AG ranks among the world’s ten largest trade fair companies and operates the world’s largest exhibition center. Last year, Deutsche Messe planned and staged 119 trade fairs and congresses around the world – events which hosted a total of 41,000 exhibitors and some four million visitors
W
hat is your role at Deutsche Messe? I’ve been a Member of the Board for two and a half
years. In total there are 1000 employees and four Members of the Board. I am responsible for several trade shows in Hannover including DOMOTEX, The Hannover Messe, which is a big industry fair, Ligna for the forestry and wood processing industries and the Biotechnica fair.
The aim of a trade show is always the same; to bring people
together on the one hand and to create a product, in this case an exhibition, on the other. It doesn’t matter if you’re putting on a trade show on flooring, such as DOMOTEX or one on trucks. As a tradeshow manager I’m a platform organiser and so it’s important to convince the exhibitors to build fantastic booths and stands and then find and attract visitors. The final key is in ensuring that the visitors are happy to form and maintain contacts while the exhibition is running.
W
hy are tradeshows still important today?
If you look at our digital world, many things have changed in the past 15 years. However, there’s still a need for people to come together. When people are doing business together they want to know who they are dealing with and that’s the reason people join us here in Hannover. It’s very important to make it international
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