Make humans great again

 Is it an illusion, or are we currently experiencing a renaissance of the trade show? Koeln­messe has just announced the biggest visitor attendance for Spoga+Gafa in years. That's in spite of the green sector, which already boasts a strong International Plant Trade Fair (IPM), being augmented just recently by the addition of new, special green segments at Christmasworld (Floradecora) and at Tendence in Frankfurt.Wherever you look, there's some­thing going on in the international trade fair business. New, albeit smaller, events have been launched in countries such as Vietnam and Panama; the good old biennial Hardware Fair in Cologne, which faced the threat of extinction for many years, is now embraced by the DIY industry; the IPM is strengthening its foreign spin-offs in Russia and China; Brico Day is getting established in Italy, with the format also being exported to Romania; and in Spain Eurobrico is starting up again. All these examples show that the concept of the trade fair is evidently not dead.Widening the perspective a little and looking at how trade shows are developing in the home improvement and garden industry generally, it is likewise clear that these gatherings and conferences are in greater demand than ever, both nationally and internationally. The prime exponent of this is the Global DIY Summit, which goes from strength to strength.What is the phenomenon behind this? Probably the old adage that business is conducted by people with people. Obviously it's not enough simply to meet telecommunicatively in digital space.And now we take another step back for a slightly wider perspective and ask: what does it mean for me and my customers?

No, we are not calling to account the cold objectivity of robots on the sales floor here, or the speaking, writing chatbots. These technologies are fantastic for simplifying communication and completing certain tasks more efficiently; but studies show that customers don't particularly like bots, because they don't really believe that artificial intelligence is intelligent, or they are irritated by it. And people like shopping in stores - even digital natives.Building a relationship, especially a customer relationship that is satisfying for both parties, calls not…