• N?rnbergMesse Group: revenue tops 185 million euros
• N?rnbergConvention Center: busy year with many premieres
• Worldwide exhibition ranking: one of the top 15 exhibition centres

“2013 struck 13” aptly describes the year in brief. The past 12 months were packed with events that gave the exhibition and congress centre a busy year with a strong result. “The exhibition centre with 160,000 square metres of display space achieved a hall turnover factor of 13 for the first time in an odd year,” according to N?rnbergMesse CEOs Dr. Roland Fleck and Peter Ottmann: “With over 185 million euros in 2013, N?rnbergMesse will produce its highest revenue ever for an odd year, a year in which several trade fairs take a scheduled break.” A strong year for congresses, in which many events had their premieres in the N?rnbergConvention Center, contributed a great deal to the appreciable rise in revenue over 2011 (173.3 million euros). 2013 was also a year of anniversaries – and this a year before the company celebrates its own decadal birthday in 2014 – which is already foreseeable as another really good year for N?rnbergMesse.

2013 is a year of good key exhibition parameters for N?rnbergMesse. More than 26,500 exhibitors over the whole group is a record result for an odd year and represents a rise of three per cent (2011: 25,808). The share of international exhibitors at the N?rnberg exhibition venue climbed to 38 per cent for the first time in an odd year (2011: 37 %). For the international trade fairs of N?rnbergMesse, this figure even topped the 50-per-cent mark to reach 52 per cent (previous events: 50 %). The group figures for the number of visitors (over 1.12 million, plus 1 %) and the net space sold (over 800,000 m?, plus 5 %) also reached top values, which overall makes 2013 the best odd year in the history of the company.

Hall 3A: “funded from our own resources”
“In terms of revenue and key financial parameters, we are well in line with the budget and forecast in 2013,” says CEO Fleck with pleasure. As he stresses, 2013 is also the year in which the new hall 3A was largely financed, “a major investment we are managing without additional funds from our partners”. The hall is undoubtedly needed. Fleck: “The first year of operation already confirms the predicted demand: nine events in hall 3A are already firmly booked for 2014.” The good utilization of the exhibition and congress centre is shown not least by the parameter known as the hall turnover factor, i.e. the number of times the entire hall capacity is hired. This factor is 13 in 2013, compared with 14 in 2012, a record year. “This indicates once again that the weaker odd years due to event cycles are ultimately also strong years,” emphasizes Ottmann.

Meetings of doctors and footballers
Just how busy the past months have been is shown mainly by the utilization of the Convention Center: 56 congresses took place there in 2013 (2011:48), some of them with accompanying trade shows. The three Convention Centers, NCC West, NCC Mitte and NCC Ost, registered altogether 287 days occupied – also an outstanding figure for an odd year. Fleck: “This shows how well the N?rnbergConvention Center is now positioned and how attractive it is nationally and internationally.” This power of attraction then also ensured that many events were held in the N?rnbergConvention Center for the first time in 2013. Premieres included the European Microwave Week, the Developer Week, the 2013 International Congress on Visceral Medicine, the EMV Ordering Exhibition of the Europa M?bel-Verbund, or, most recently, the DFB National Football Association Conference in October.

Appropriate to the strong convention year, the Congress Initiative N?rnberg celebrated its tenth anniversary. In this network of relevant partners for congress business, “everyone pulls together – and in the same direction too. This joint effort to position N?rnberg as an attractive congress location is bearing fruit,” says Fleck with 2013 in mind. The city’s former long-serving Director of Economic Affairs had once initiated the network. He emphasizes the productive cooperation between all concerned: “The open exchange of views has led to understanding and trust. This is a good basis for further success in the convention business – for the city and for our centre.”

Highest net space sold and many congresses: “Organizing many events involves working long and hard,” stress Dr. Roland Fleck and Peter Ottmann, CEOs of N?rnbergMesse GmbH. “We therefore sincerely thank our colleagues for their commitment this year.” The N?rnbergMesse Group employed a total of about 560 persons in December 2013 (2012: 545).

Anniversary year(s)
Anniversaries are not only celebrated in the congress segment. Several large exhibitions also celebrated special birthdays in 2013: The end-consumer exhibition Consumenta was 60, the leading International Trade Fair Ideas – Inventions – Innovations iENA was even 65 (both organized by AFAG). IWA OutdoorClassics also celebrated a decadal birthday – 40 this year – “and is still growing”, as Peter Ottmann emphasizes. The special anniversary series continues in 2014 with Spielwarenmesse (65; organizer: Spielwarenmesse eG) and BIOFACH (25).

“The history of these exhibitions is an excellent example: We owe a good share of our success to powerful partners and strong and valued customers. It is the good cooperation and mutual trust that lead to long-term success, as shown not least by the respectable anniversaries,” says CEO Peter Ottmann.

This also applies to the activities abroad, where we have five years of N?rnbergMesse Brasil and five years of N?rnbergMesse Italia to celebrate in 2014. For N?rnbergMesse India, the exhibition organizers in N?rnberg managed to produce a grandson before the daughter: N?rnbergMesse together with publisher Vincentz Network had already acquired shares in the PAINTINDIA trade fair before N?rnbergMesse India was founded in spring 2013. The trade fair strengthens the coatings network of N?rnbergMesse and the good partnership with Vincentz-Verlag in Hanover.

Our own special anniversary is due next year, when N?rnbergMesse celebrates its 40th. Dr. Roland Fleck and Peter Ottmann: “We already know that 2014 will be an outstanding year. Not just because we expect a very successful financial year; we will also open our new hall 3A – and celebrate our company’s 40th anniversary.”

“Good progress on the international front”
The overall development of the international exhibitions also proceeded positively, and in all relevant key parameters. The number of exhibitors rose by 8 per cent, the net space by 10 per cent and the number of visitors by 18 per cent over the comparable year 2011. “This shows that we have also made good progress on the international front,” says Ottmann. Here he attributes the success less to one particular event, but rather to the overall picture. Besides the founding of N?rnbergMesse India, he highlights the stable development of the product families in 2013. These international event clusters include the BIOFACH family, the Global Fair Alliance (an alliance of the world’s leading window exhibitions), the Coatings Network, the pet supplies trade fairs, the POWDER & BULK NETWORK and the network of trade fairs in the refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pump segment.

“Goal: top position in energy efficiency”
The fact that 2013 was not only a strong year, but an energetic year too, is illustrated by the energy management system that N?rnbergMesse has been intensively working on over the past months. “Our goal is to occupy a top position among the world-leading exhibition companies in terms of energy efficiency,” says Dr. Roland Fleck. The company-wide introduction of the energy management system in the coming months will be followed by the certification of N?rnbergMesse to DIN EN ISO 50001. “This will then be the first element of our energy offensive, which will be followed by other elements starting in the coming year,” stress Fleck and Ottmann.

The exhibition company will also receive another quality label in 2014: Hall 3A will actually be the first exhibition hall to be certified to the standards of the Deutsche Gesellschaft f?r nachhaltiges Bauen (DGNB – German Sustainable Building Council) in the “silver” category. “This is achieved by the clear focus on sustainability in the design, construction and operation and the desired optimized energy efficiency,” says CEO Dr. Roland Fleck.

N?rnbergMesse one of the top 15 exhibition centres
And what about 2014? “We will follow the strong odd year with a strong even year,” says Ottmann, explaining the “path” that N?rnbergMesse has taken for many years, and which will continue – on a broad basis – in the coming year due to the large number of exhibitors already established. “After record years in 2010 and 2012, we expect revenue appreciably above 200 million euros again in 2014,” says Ottmann. And sees N?rnbergMesse in excellent company here – worldwide too. The most recent publication by the Ausstellungs- und Messeausschuss der Deutschen Wirtschaft (AUMA – Association of the German Trade Fair Industry) shows that N?rnbergMesse currently holds 13th place in the ranking of the largest exhibition companies. CEO duo Fleck and Ottmann: “N?rnbergMesse is to establish itself permanently among the world’s top 15 exhibition companies in the medium term. We want to take a further step towards our goal in 2014.”

About the N?rnbergMesse Group
N?rnbergMesse is one of the 15 largest exhibition companies in the world and among the Top Ten in Europe. The portfolio covers some 120 national and international trade fairs and congresses and approximately 40 sponsored pavilions at the N?rnberg location and worldwide. Every year, around 30,000 exhibitors (international share 39 %) and up to 1.4 million visitors (international share of trade visitors 22 %) participate in the N?rnbergMesse Group’s own, partner and guest events. The group is present with subsidiaries in China, North America, Brazil, Italy and now in India too. The N?rnbergMesse Group also has a network of approximately 50 representatives operating in more than 100 countries.