The Importance of Socialising in Trade Shows

Here's my Presentation during the InnovationLDN Conference that was recently held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.

Do Trade Fair Grounds and Shopping Malls have similarities?

Do trade fair grounds and shopping malls have similarities? Both are housed in large buildings, some in what we call shopping districts (a collective of buildings spread across some few hectars of land) that also mimic that of trade fair grounds like Deutsche Messe AG:

Hannover's Trade Fair Grounds measures 1km²

or Messe Duesseldorf GmbH's fairgrounds:

Düsseldorf's fairgrounds

or even that of Messe Frankfurt GmbH's fairgrounds:

Messe Frankfurt's Fairgrounds

What about that of shopping districts?

CentrO, Oberhausen

or even that of shopping districts in the UK?

Bicester Village, Bicester, UK

Westfield London, UK

Or what about that of Asian shopping districts?

Pavillion KL, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The fact that shopping malls in Asia span about 0.5km² per shopping mall does actually scare me quite a bit. But the norm is that we Asians take it into stride whilst other parts of the world prefer boulevards, shopping streets or Pedestrian Zones to shop in. Perhaps this is slowly changing?

But when you compare it to trade fair grounds, I see no difference. The architectural side of things perhaps differs but then again when you have visited Frankfurt's fairgrounds, some halls are multi-level, similar to that of a shopping mall in Asia or even now in Westfield. The only thing different is perhaps the product category. Shopping malls have everything under one roof, trade fair grounds exhibit specific products based on the theme of the trade fair at hand. However, shopping malls have taken to classifying their levels according to needs and products, e.g. Groundfloor - medium to high end goods, 1st floor - low to medium end goods, 2nd floor - furniture and accessories, 3rd floor - eateries. Trade fairs classify their products when it comes to multi-level exhibiting according to quality.

See any similarities? Perhaps when you go shopping or visit a trade show / fair / exhibition, you will note the gathering of shops, brands, retailers based on popularity, brand awareness and the sort.