ORGATEC fantastic atmosphere, increased internationality and high quality

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1 Press Release No. 14, final report ORGATEC, 21 to 25 October, 2014 ORGATEC fantastic atmosphere, increased internationality and high quality Strong growth in international visitor and exhibitor figures / important decision-makers and specialist retailers on site, from Germany and abroad / high levels of exhibitor satisfaction and important industry visitors ORGATEC to 25 October 2014 MODERN OFFICE & FACILITY ORGATEC 2014 came to a close on Saturday (25 October) with extremely positive results. The industry s opinion barometer was clearly indicating a high! The leading international trade fair for Office & Object showed strong growth, particularly in the areas of internationality and quality as well as in the range and diversity of products and services. With more than 50,000 visitors from more than 120 countries including estimates for the final day of the fair ORGATEC 2014 indicated a slight increase in visitor figures on This is due to the growth in international visitors (up 7 per cent). The trade fair recorded a significant, double-digit increase above all in visitors from the Middle East, North America, North and South Africa and China. Visitor figures from within Europe were also up, particularly visitors from Turkey, Italy and Spain. The 624 suppliers from 41 countries with 66 per cent of those from abroad underlined ORGATEC s international importance. Almost 2,000 industry visitors from Italy, a large increase in the USA and Canadian presence as well as an up-turn in visitors from the Middle East confirm ORGATEC s leading role in the global office and contract arena, says Katharina C. Hamma, Chief Operating Officer at Koelnmesse. Hamma, Chief Operating Officer of Koelnmesse. On the domestic side, the important decision-makers and specialist retailers were also on site, whereby ORGATEC thoroughly fulfilled its highest expectations. Hendrik Hund, Chairman of the bso (Association of Office, Seating and Contract Furniture), says: With a Contact: Stephanie Josst Tel Fax s.josst@ koelnmesse.de Koelnmesse GmbH Messeplatz Cologne P.O. Box Cologne Germany Tel Fax info@koelnmesse.de Executive Board: Gerald Böse (President and Chief Executive Officer) Katharina C. Hamma Herbert Marner Chairman of the Supervisory Board: Mayor of the City of Cologne Jürgen Roters Headquarters and place of jurisdiction: Cologne District Court Cologne, HRB 952

2 wide-ranging combination of conceptual and product innovations, the future of office work could actually be experienced at ORGATEC. It was fitting, therefore, that this year there was a striking number of younger visitors to Cologne, keen to find out about the latest trends. We are delighted that the fair was such a success. Visitors and exhibitors alike were particularly impressed with ORGATEC s new hall layout. To facilitate better orientation through the trade fair, with all 105,000 sqm of its exhibition space completely booked up, Hall 11.2 instead of Hall 10.1 was opened up. 2/6 An all around successful trade fair In its four segments, "ORGATEC Office", "ORGATEC Contract", "ORGATEC Space" and "ORGATEC Mobile", the trade fair presented integrated solutions and comprehensive concepts for everything connected with the office as a working and living environment. In Halls 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.2 and 11.2, leading national and international manufacturers from the areas of furnishing, flooring, acoustics, lighting, media and conferencing technology presented their product and service innovations to industry members from all over the world. The range of trade visitors to the fair comprised founders of start-up companies, dealers and decision-makers from SMEs as well as executives from the Procurement and Human Resources departments of large corporations. The presence of nearly all of the market-leading companies and the extremely high-quality products presented from the furnishing, lighting, flooring, room acoustic and media technology segments generated a great deal of interest on the part of visitors. The company stands attracted a lot of attention. Henning Figge, Vice President Europe and Managing Director for Germany at Haworth reported outstanding success at the fair: We are exceptionally satisfied with the feedback regarding our appearance at ORGATEC. On every day of the fair, we had very high levels of visitor frequency and a large number of valuable contacts. The global structure of our company was also reflected in the

3 internationality of our fair guests, who came from all over the world to visit us in Cologne. We are very happy that our new products as well as our stand, designed by Patricia Urquiola, were so well received by all our visitors. Once again, ORGATEC was a complete success for Haworth this year. For Sedus Stoll, ORGATEC is undisputedly the industry s most important meeting point and market place." Holger Jahnke, Director of Marketing and Sales says: The atmosphere at our stand was very good. Alongside our industry visitors, we also had the opportunity to meet many end users considering prospective projects as well as architects. Above all, we noticed an increase in international interest and that includes more frequent requests from US manufacturers for licensing of our products. We feel that our decision to place the emphasis of our fair stand concept on communication solutions was completely justified. While the traditional work place is still standard, employers are investing in them less and less, whereas there is a higher level of investment in the area of lounge, team and meeting solutions. Thomas Raadts, Head of Marketing of DURABLE also gave positive feedback: We chose ORGATEC as the venue to present Luctra, the first biological lighting system, to the world for the first time. Our product was a great success. We are completely satisfied with our appearance at the fair. Our fair stand had plenty of visitors on all of the fair days and the quality of those visitors was very high! We had numerous very worthwhile discussions with existing and potential clients and established some very important contacts through those discussions. With our fair presentation, we really feel like we were able to inspire industry visitors from our target areas. Jacob Holm, CEO at Fritz Hansen was also able to give ORGATEC a positive testimonial: After 12 years away, Fritz Hansen is back at ORGATEC and we are very happy about that. On all five days of the fair, we had many different discussions and have had very positive reactions regarding our presentation on the topic of Explore Relations. ORGATEC is one of the most important trade fairs and we hope that we will be able to be here at the next edition too. Interstuhl also had positive fair experiences from day one. The fair stand was well frequented. All of our geographical markets were represented and all had 3/6

4 impressive visitor figures from their individual markets. Overall, a really successful fair, says Werner Link, Managing Director at Interstuhl. Andreas Bellof, General Manager at KOMTECH agreed with the unanimously positive conclusions of his co-exhibitors: We are very satisfied with the quality of our visitors as well as with their number. We will certainly be returning to ORGATEC in /6 Completely satisfied visitors Visitors to ORGATEC also reported being completely satisfied with the event. The visitor survey revealed that 84 per cent of visitors said they were (very) satisfied or satisfied with the degree to which they had met their trade fair objectives. What s more, the fair's comprehensive spectrum of products ensured that 86 per cent of visitors rated the product range as either good or (very) good. Overall, 94 per cent of visitors would recommend a visit to ORGATEC to their business partners. Trends at ORGATEC Plenty of well-being, communication, technology and movement. ORGATEC 2014 had a strong focus on the noticeable changes in today's working environment. A central theme was the design of communication-friendly work place concepts which simultaneously offered places of retreat as locations for concentrated work with a cosy atmosphere. Alongside furnishing, exhibitors presented innovative acoustics solutions and lighting concepts. Another major focus at this year's ORGATEC was integrated technology and the possibilities of sharing, forwarding and jointly processing knowledge and information via cutting-edge technology. The credo was a sense of well-being in the office as well as more movement, promoting and improving employees health and thereby motivation levels and working capacity of staff. Very positive reactions to event's themes On all five days of ORGATEC s event programme, top-level experts discussed current trends and presented best practice scenarios, including topics like

5 Demographic Change in the Office, Change Management and Gamification which was first introduced and discussed with great success at ORGATEC. The public also appeared in large numbers for the presentation of the latest findings of the New Work Order study on the future of work. The international best practice examples were also very well received. 5/6 The themed day Future of Work which took place for the first time in connection with ORGATEC was a great success. It was a joint project conceived and delivered by the educational sector of DGB NRW (Confederation of German Trade Unions, North Rhine Westphalia), the German Office Network, the National Association for Health and Safety in the Workplace, the North Rhine Westphalia technological advice centre and Koelnmesse. The 100 participants, including members of works and staff councils as well as representatives of the severely disabled, attended a wideranging series of lectures and presentations on the topic of office working and entered into discussions with manufacturers in the area. ORGATEC has successfully tapped a new target market with this topic and has shown that it is the ideal platform for it, says Manfred Fischer, chairman of the DNW (Deutsche Netzwerk Büro/German Office Network). At the next ORGATEC, we will build on this future-orientated spectrum of topics and bring the target group new and innovative impetus and ideas. A similarly successful concept presented for the first time at ORGATEC was the Workplace Congress for facility managers. Around 140 participants were afforded the opportunity to find out all about spatial concepts, efficient use of space, lighting, acoustics as well as interior temperatures and conditions. They were also able to take part in panel discussions with industry experts. ORGATEC 2014 in figures ORGATEC 2014 hosted 624 companies from 41 countries (2012: 622 companies from 35 countries) on 105,000 sqm (2012: 105,000 sqm) of exhibition space. Of the 624 companies present, 207 exhibitors and 5 additionally represented companies (2012: 225 companies and 31 additionally

6 represented companies) were German and 409 exhibitors and 3 additionally represented companies (2012: 359 companies and 7 additionally represented companies) came from abroad, meaning 66% of the exhibitors (2012: 59%) were international companies. Including estimates for the final fair day, more than 50,000 industry visitors from 120 countries (2012: approximately 50,000 industry visitors from 123 countries) came to ORGATEC 2014, with around 52% (2012: 48%) of those coming from abroad.* 6/6 * All figures have been calculated in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Society of Voluntary Control of Trade Fair and Exhibition Statistics (FKM) and have been inspected by an independent auditor ( The next ORGATEC - leading international Fair for Office & Object - will take place from 25 to 29 October Note for editors: Photos from ORGATEC as well as the logo can be found in our Image database at in the "Press" section. If you reprint this document, please send us a sample copy. For 90 years, Koelnmesse has been bringing people and markets together. The success story of Cologne trade fairs began in 1924 with the opening of the first event on the exhibition grounds in Cologne-Deutz. During the "economic miracle" of the post-world War II era, the "Rheinische Messe" became a global trading center. Today Koelnmesse has the world's fifth-largest exhibition complex and organizes approximately 75 trade fairs in Cologne and all over the world. During its anniversary year of 2014, Koelnmesse is bringing its history to the public s attention through numerous activities, publications, and exhibitions.