The dmexco stands for digital marketing exposition & conference and is the world’s leading event for the digital marketing industry. Every year, marketing and media professionals as well as technology professionals and creative people from all over the world meet at Koelnmesse.
This week it took place for the ninth time and I had the impression that the number of visitors was huge, despite the abolishment of free tickets! Now I’m curious to see what the official attendance figures* for dmexco 2017 will be and how they will compare with previous years.
Lightening – The Age of Transformation
This year’s motto is : Lightening – The Age of Transformation. It reflects the desire and intention of the digital economy to provide more “enlightenment” in digital change, i.e. to educate people and offer solutions (by the way, you can find the slogans of previous years here in our blog).
The dmexco 2017 sees itself as an impulse and pulse generator. And not only for the digital economy, but for the entire economy world. Therefore, the transformation was a very special focus at the dmexco 2017. Qualified experts discussed relevant problems and pointed out the most different solution possibilities.
From 13 to 14 September, Cologne was the meeting place for all digital and creative minds who wanted to exchange their visions of the future and ideas.
Diversity und Pure Business
In the large Exposition Halls, one booth outperformed the other. The visitors tumbled around in the corridors and admired the extensive and at the same time fascinating offer. At every corner you could see trade visitors who were engaged in conversations or lively discussions between enthusiastic experts. This year’s dmexco again offered space for international networking and promising exchange in the digital economy of tomorrow.
WUM Design at the dmexco 2017
As an exhibition stand construction company, WUM Brand Design also contributed to the success of dmexco 2017. More than 20 exhibition stands were designed and built by us. Are you planning to be present at the next dmexco with a stand in Cologne? Then feel free to contact us! We will take care of everything around your trade fair stand. From conception to logistics to construction – we are happy to answer your questions!
Orientation at dmexco – well connected!
The organisation at dmexco 2017 was flawless and you could easily find your way around! In spite of the spacious distribution of the individual areas over the exhibition grounds of the koelnmesse, we were able to keep an overview without any difficulties.
With the travel pass that you received with your ticket, you could easily travel to the fair by public transport. In addition, there were several shuttle buses that transported visitors to the various entrances. The arrival was well prepared if one did not want to use one of the many parking places close to the koelnmesse.
Your personal visit to the trade fair – plan your visit with the trade fair app
For the best possible outcome of a trade fair visit, the right preparation is the be-all and end-all. With the dmexco app it was foolproof! The handling of the app is quite intuitive. It has several very practical functionalities. These include map and QR code scanner.
The list of exhibitors, which could be sorted according to their location or topic, was really very useful to me. The search function was particularly convenient.
The app also includes a very individual planning function. MYPLAN allowed me to organize my personal day at the fair. With a simple click on the star, the desired conferences were added to my schedule. So I had all important information such as short description, presenter, guests and time at a single glance and with a further click I could display the location of the session on the map.
Exposition and Conferences
Beside the six Exposition Halls there were 17 Conference-Stages. The programme was unbelievably diverse and very suitable, so that every visitor could benefit from the added value of the dmexco 2017.
The topics of the sessions left not one wish unfulfilled. Brand-specific explanations such as the insight into McDonald’s strategy on customer centricity by Susan Schramm (CMO) or the interview with Marianne Bullwinkel (Country Director D-A-CH) about the possibilities of storytelling in the Snapchat App were just as enthusiastic as exciting discussion rounds about mobile moments and their significance for marketing.
I especially liked the final session in the Experience Hall on the last day. Moderated by Cherno Jobatey, Christi Olson (Head of Evangelism Microsoft), Jeff Gomez (Starlight Runner) and JC Oliver (Global Chief Creative Officer Unlockd) each summarized the future of advertising from their eyes in five minutes. The show was accompanied by a live band that pushed the mood in the hall and created a great atmosphere.
The first impression counts – and convinces!
The dmexco 2017 has completely convinced with its interesting program and its expert contributions. It more than lived up to its status as the most important industry event. For me personally it was the first visit to the dmexco and as they say so nicely: First impression counts! I am already looking forward to the dmexco 2018!
*Update visitor numbers dmexco 2017
As dmexco announced in its official press release, dmexco 2017 attracted 40,700 trade visitors to Cologne this year. The organisers are very satisfied with the decision to remove the free tickets: “Because when we talk about growth, quality is the most important thing for us. And at dmexco 2017 this was definitely the case,” explains Gerald Böse, CEO of koelnmesse.
All photos: Lisa Oelsen
