IFA Forging Ahead With Physical Tech Show, First in Pandemic Era
Despite mounting event cancellations, including that of CES 2021 (see 2007280034), IFA is taking a stab at the world’s first in-person tech show to be held during the pandemic era when it hosts a three-day physical and virtual hybrid event beginning Thursday. IFA 2020 Special Edition as it's called won’t look anything like a typical IFA at the Messe Berlin fairgrounds. The physical portion will limit daily attendance to 4,000 and will keep consumers away (see 2005190035). It’s also three days long compared with the usual six. Promoters claimed more than 250,000 trade and consumer visitors flocked to IFA 2019.
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More than five dozen exhibitors booked physical booth space in the Shift Mobility Meets IFA Next pavilion being set up at the massive CityCube building inside Messe Berlin’s south entrance. Samsung typically occupies the whole CityCube but announced in July it won’t participate in the Berlin festivities this year (see 2007020030). Nearly 900 companies, the vast majority of them Chinese, will participate in IFA as virtual exhibitors.
About a dozen companies plan in-person news conferences during the event, to be in adjacent Halls 3.2 and 4.2 just north of the CityCube building. Notables holding physical conferences include Haier, Hyundai, Miele and TCL. Huawei and LG are on the bill with virtual news conferences. Several companies, including Schneider Electric, plan hybrid conferences.
IFA will limit Hall 3.2 or 4.2 participation to 740 journalists at a time, said organizers. Badge scans will activate a traffic light system outside each hall. When maximum capacity is reached, the light turns red, signaling to journalists waiting to get in to go to the other hall or wait outside for someone to come out.
Organizers will require masks on the Messe Berlin grounds and enforce the 1.5-meter (4.9 feet) social-distancing recommendation of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany’s counterpart to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. IFA will require journalists to vacate the halls after each news conference for deep-cleaning. Only media will be admitted, no exhibitors or trade visitors.
IFA will use badge scans for contact tracing as visitors enter and exit the venue, said Messe Berlin’s "safety and hygiene" protocols guide. “To be able to trace and localise possible infections and in compliance with the legal provisions, information will be collected on all participants,” said the guide. “Information will be stored on the exact times of entry to and departure from the event venue.” Amid Germany’s strict privacy laws, “the data will be passed on to the relevant public health authority solely upon official request,” said the guide. Organizers are urging visitors to install the RKI contact tracing app on their phones.
Organizers say they're proceeding with a physical show, albeit vastly downsized, because Germany has fared relatively well during the pandemic. RKI reported nearly 242,400 confirmed COVID-19 cases there through Monday, up 610 from a day earlier. Its 9,300 deaths rank 15th worldwide, said Johns Hopkins University.