The Swissbau trade fair for the construction and real estate industry attracts many visitors to Basel for its anniversary. New concepts are well.
Physical trade fairs are anything but boring. This is impressively demonstrated by Swissbau, which is currently taking place in the halls of Messe Basel.
Appearances are not deceptive
The platform for the construction and real estate industry, which was founded in 1974 as a physical trade fair and has been held every two years since then, is currently attracting many visitors to the city on the banks of the Rhine.
This was confirmed by visits to the trade fair by muula.ch during numerous discussions with exhibitors.
National and international companies, architecture firms and the like offer an overview of innovations, trends and solutions in the construction and architectural scene.
As a multi-sector trade fair, interdisciplinary event and networking platform, Swissbau is once again bringing experts together in one place.
Hundreds of exhibitors
During the coronavirus pandemic, Messe Basel had some bad luck under its usual format, meaning Swissbau could not take place in January 2022 due to a lack of official approval. Then a smaller version back in May, which was rather unfavorable for the construction industry for such an event, only met with limited approval.
However, for its 50th birthday, more than 600 exhibitors and partners took part on around 85,000 square meters and the trade fair was able to take place again back to its old size, as officially announced by the Basel-based exhibition company MCH Group.
Munich provided a foretaste
Visitors crowded everywhere and even lectures and discussion forums, as active exchange platforms, were always well attended.
Swissbau presented itself with two new concepts. Swissbau City bundles a wide variety of information opportunities in three marketplaces, and Swissbau Inside provides an overview of interior design products.
Some exhibitors were somewhat disappointed by the first day of the fair, Tuesday. But Wednesday and Thursday were as popular as ever. The trade fair is still open until Friday.
A rival event in Munich had already given industry representatives a taste of the renewed interest, according to one exhibitor at BAU Munich.
Answers directly from experts
Invitations for customers to events at the trade fair stands around companies such as Hörmann, Geberit, KWC & Co. were particularly well received, as were open trade fair stand apéritifs at numerous exhibitors.
Many visitors to the stand spent their time at the trade fair, attending events or getting a taste of new products from the competition. As a result, there were always crowds of people at the presentations of innovations, where the experts present were able to answer questions straight away.
Numerous specialists listened to the experiences with BIM, digital construction, for example in the “Dreiklang” project, the new building at the Aarau Cantonal Hospital – with a budget around one billion Swiss francs – or the new building at the Inselspital in Bern.
The locking and door technology group Dormakaba presented their latest door control systems as well as interesting videos about the key manufacturing process at their plant in Wetzikon ZH.
SBB finds treasure
The discussions on digital construction as well as sustainability and recycling in the construction and real estate industry were also exciting.
Swiss Federal Railways SBB, for example, declared that they were sitting on a treasure trove after taking a complete inventory of their entire infrastructure, highlighting the value of recyclable materials.
Subsequent discussions in the trade fair’s own beer garden, or at events such as the tenth anniversary celebration of the B2B networking platform buildup network, washed down really well with the public.
The trade fair organizers succeeded in creating a good atmosphere in the exhibition halls, a cool vibe that’s a hallmark for physical trade fairs.
With this cooperative synergy among craftsmen, engineers, architects, management members, marketing managers, etc., where virtually everyone communicates with everyone else, face-to-face trade fairs are still very much justified in our digital world.
Staying innovative
With so much praise, however, a little constructive criticism should not go missing.
With only four separate workstations in the ‘Cube’, this proved far too few for the business people present who needed to work or make phone calls in peace and quiet for an hour. There would have been enough space for more such ‘cubes’ within the halls.
In conclusion, we can only hope that Swissbau will continue to reinvent itself over the next 50 years and find the perfect balance between a physical trade fair and digital exhibition formats.
This will allow Swissbau to celebrate its 100th birthday as a meeting place for professionals and interested parties in the construction and real estate sectors.
18.01.2024/kut./ena.