imm cologne news

The imm cologne ended on Sunday, 24th January 2010 with a positive closing balance. Despite being shortened by a day, the fair managed to equal the previous year’s result with around 100,000 visitors. The number of exhibitors even slightly exceeded last year’s level. From Koelnmesse’s perspective, the high expectations of the imm cologne as one of the most important fairs for the international furniture and interior design sector have thus been met.

“The exhibitors have used their innovativeness to brave the crisis and been rewarded by doing good business,” says Koelnmesse’s CEO Gerald Böse. “Cologne is the business forum for the industry,” concludes the head of the trade fair company. The positive mood that prevailed in the halls for the entire duration of the fair was also emphasised by Dirk-Uwe Klaas: “This was by far the most successful furniture show for years. In the midst of the crisis, trade visitors and end consumers alike have given us impressive confirmation that the imm cologne has regained its former strength,” says the chief executive of the Association of the German Furniture Industry (Verband der Deutschen Möbelindustrie, VDM). As announced last Friday, Koelnmesse and the VDM as non-material sponsor of the imm cologne have extended their contract long-term to continue this successful collaboration beyond the scope of the imm cologne 2010.

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imm cologne is the central forum for the international furnishings industry, where exhibitors and decision-makers from all important markets meet.

Your individual business is the focus of our attention. We can support you in many ways: A new service is the Business Centre, which facilitates the work for visitors.

Fully equipped workstations put everything at your disposal to facilitate communication: free Internet access, telephone and fax. There is also an interpreter service available.

Lost your mobile phone? Forgotten your laptop? Need an interpreter? No problem. In the Business Centre located on the Boulevard between hall 6 and hall 9 you will find everything for your communication needs.

Why is imm cologne a top event for exhibitors and trade visitors that you definitely must attend? We asked manufacturers, designers, retailers, commercial agents and architects.

Jens Wolff, CEO of CDH | For us this is the most important tradeshow for the furniture industry, where we can help exhibitors and visitors find distributors in Germany thus providing our members with an important and valuable service. Nowhere else is the support from the exhibition organisers as extensive as it is at imm cologne. But most importantly, the exhibition’s enormous importance and its excellent promotion in terms of attracting visitors helps us to get in touch with many sales representatives who are not yet members of CDH.

Claus Anstoetz, CEO, BW Bielefelder Werkstätten and Interprofil | We present almost all of the innovations from BW Bielefelder Werkstätten and Interprofil at imm cologne, because it gives us the best environment for displaying our products. It is always a pleasant start to the current business year.

Markus Benz, CEO Walter Knoll AG & Co. KG | imm cologne ranks among the most important furniture fairs worldwide. For manufacturers from Northern Europe it is the most important platform to present their novelties. It, thus, holds a strong attractiveness for retailers, architects and end customers.

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The 2010 year in furniture begins on January19 at imm cologne with an explosion of trends, new products and inspirational exhibition design all centred around the theme of living and interior design.

Here, you are directly in the centre of a thriving market, here, business is made. There are many good reasons why you should be there, when Cologne is again home to all things design, trends and business.

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Online Matchmaking, a feature of imm cologne 2010, will give trade visitors like yourself the possibility of contacting imm exhibitors even before the trade fair begins. More service + more communication = more success.

What is Online Matchmaking?

Online Matchmaking is an Internet-based contact centre. Using this tool, you can address questions in a simple and anonymous manner to all exhibitors in the product group that interests you. It offers you the following advantage: You need to ask only one question, but you’ll simultaneously reach more than one exhibitor. Because the exhibitors will answer your question via e-mail, you’ll have the opportunity to arrange personal meetings before the trade fair begins with exactly the exhibitors you’re interested in. It’s the ideal way to organize an efficient trade fair visit.

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You can view the hall plans of imm cologne 2010 and choose your stand space online. It’s an event you can’t afford to miss. So take the opportunity to reserve one of the free stand spaces (red marked) for your perfect trade fair presentation! To get an overview, find here the hall plan.

There is not enough time to create your own booth design? Order here our All-inclusive-stand Package.

Your sector will be in the spotlight at imm cologne 2010 – so don’t miss out!

With the “Agents Directory” online tool, Koelnmesse and imm cologne 2010 are providing a service independent of trade fair times and in coordination with the furniture and furnishings industry. Trade representatives and exhibitors at imm cologne who are looking for sales partners are for the first time coming together also online to develop new markets.

Quick success: As a trade representative and agent, you can regsiter and set up your profile at http://agents.imm-cologne.com/administration. Important information to include is what products you market and in which countries and regions. Your details are then added to the Agents Directory. For you as a trade representative and agent, the procedure is free of charge.

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Walter Knoll (exhibitor at imm cologne 2010, 19.-24.01.2010), one of Germany’s oldest manufacturers of upholstered furniture, cultivates a close partnership with designers and architects – an approach that is key to the company’s success. “New products evolve out of thorough communication, immersing yourself in processes and clarifying ideas. We seek out gaps together, looking for the right opening for something that has never been done before,” says CEO Markus Benz.

Benz, head of the Herrenberg-based company since 1993, sets great store by communication. It is a recurring theme that is also reflected in the company’s products. Take the Ameo lounge chairs by Austrian design team EOOS, for instance: they are ideal for relaxing with friends and putting the world to rights. The island-like swivel chairs can be turned to face one another for a conversation or away from the crowd for a moment of reflection, open to new perspectives. Or Living Landscape – another EOOS design. The sides and back turn with the seat and change their position.

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International experts agree: when it comes to relaxing furniture with majority appeal, Germany’s upholstered furniture manufacturers are important innovators. In terms of ever more sophisticated comfort functions, new upholstery creations like the dinner sofa or environmentally compatible seating ensembles of the kind created by talented designer and EU award-winner Kati Meyer-Brühl, Germany is the benchmark for upholstery producers the world over.

Upholstery hub imm cologne
From 19-24 January 2010, trade visitors from all continents will be able to see this innovativeness for themselves at the imm cologne. Sofa manufacturers from Wervik to Singapore will be vying with German manufacturers to make their mark in the Cologne furniture fair’s biggest sub-section, the “Comfort” segment in Halls 5, 6 and 10.

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The average German only replaces his sofa with a new one every 8-12 years. Don’t you sometimes wish there was a scrapping incentive for furniture too?
We in the furniture industry aren’t calling for subsidies – we just want equal treatment for all sectors. Instead of getting people to scrap their cars, the politicians ought to be scrapping taxes for normal citizens and SMEs so they’ve got more money left in their pockets and budgets at the end of the month – money they can use however they see fit.

The imm cologne’s Trendboard is anticipating a return to more quality consciousness as a response to the economic crisis. Is “real” quality actually still affordable these days?
We’re living in a time when people are refraining from quick consumption again so yes, you could say people have started to change their mentality. They’re becoming more sensitive to how we use the world’s resources and looking for things that promise value and durability again. That’s why there’s an increasing demand for sustainability and value in our industry too. For earlier generations it was normal not to follow every furniture or clothing fashion or go along with every new style that came out. Then there was a period of rapid and changing consumption. The pleasure was often short-lived and the products interchangeable.

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