The mega-trade show's organisers say they will not be able to implement all the precautions required to protect public health. The event will now be held in July.
The Coronavirus scare continues to disrupt Europe’s events calendar. First it was the Geneva Motor Show, now it is Hannover Messe, by far the biggest annual draw for manufacturers across Europe.
Scheduled to take place in April, the event will now be staged 13-17 July.
The organisers say they had been told to introduce “comprehensive measures to safeguard health” at the event, such as fever measuring stations at all entrances and not allowing people from risk areas, or those who have had contact with people from risk areas, to enter the exhibition centre. They say this would have obliged them to carry out a comprehensive evaluation of all trade fair participants, from exhibitors and visitors to service providers, exhibit builders and catering companies, and they are just not able to do that.
They say such measures “would impair the staging of the event to such an extent that the event would not fulfil its purpose or would do so only with considerable restrictions for exhibitors and visitors.”
“With the July date, we offer our exhibitors the earliest possible time slot to present their innovations to a global audience and to initiate business,” said Dr. Jochen Köckler, Chairman of the Board of Management of Deutsche Messe AG. “In view of the global economic challenges triggered by the Coronavirus in the first half of the year, the new date offers great opportunities. Thus the world’s most important industrial trade fair can provide important impetus for the global economy at an early stage.”
