This year sees the ninth biennial staging of INTERMOT following the German motorcycle industry trade associations’ decision to establish it as a new alternate expo to IFMA at Munich in 1998.
This will be the fifth time that the Cologne international exhibition centre (Koelnmesse) will have staged INTERMOT since the 2006 decision to bring the new show back to the German motorcycle industry’s spiritual home (in exhibition terms) at Cologne – the city where IFMA was first staged in 1964.
With the German motorcycle market now showing strong signs of growth (+10.45 percent for the first six months of this year – see reports elsewhere in this edition) following the market stabilisation predicted by ACEM at their INTERMOT 2012 presentation, reports suggest that exhibitor booth sales and advance visitor ticket sales are running ahead of comparative figures for this stage two years ago.
With further enhancements to the package of business-friendly initiatives for dealers and international trade visitors of all kinds (for the first time Wednesday, October 1st will be a dealer, international trade visitor and premium invited guest ‘preview’ day), expectations are of the strongest trade attendance since the recession started to seriously hit the market in 2009.
Koelnmesse’s INTERMOT Project Manager Ingo Riedeberger told IDN that “the trade visitor day offers exhibitors and visitors the unique opportunity to completely focus on trade and business for one full day.
“It enables exhibitors and trade visitors to precisely plan activities and to deploy staff effectively during the fair. It also provides a platform for more in-depth exchange with other visiting experts as well as the opportunity to fully concentrate on business”.
There will be no outside event programme on the trade visitor day – the event programme will get underway on Thursday October 2nd, the first of the four days when INTERMOT is open to all consumers.
The initiatives for dealers again include the popular ‘Dealer Card’ and the business centre and dealer lounge located between halls 4 and 5 – where exhibit space for vendors looking exclusively to make B2B contacts is also available in the adjacent Business District.
Advance contact making and trade visitor schedule planning can be enhanced by using INTERMOT’s ‘Matchmaking365’ service – a free of charge online tool that allows trade visitors to request appointments with the vendors they wish to meet.
Dealer Cards offer significant savings on the standard box office and ticket shop visitor prices and are available on a one day, two day or full show ticket basis.
The Dealer Lounge will again be the venue for IDN’s popular International Night trade visitor Meet & Greet business reception at 18:30 on Wednesday, October 1st.
Following an “Intellectual Property Memorandum” signed between Koelnmesse and Chinese business partners in 2007, INTERMOT has been at the forefront of exhibition initiatives to fight against product piracy and the preservation of intellectual property rights.
The memorandum obliges the signatories to take concrete measures to promote the protection of intellectual property at the international trade fairs at which their Chinese exhibitor customers buy booths.
This will be the fourth time that INTERMOT has offered its exhibitors access to a range of advisory and enforcement services during the show, and exhibitors can download a “No Copy! – Originals Only!” brochure from the INTERMOT website in advance of the show and will have access to the programme’s Action Centre at Koelnmesse during the show.
INTERMOT was among the first international motorcycle industry exhibitions to pioneer showcasing of alternative fuels, and in particular of environmentally friendly and sustainable transport solutions. This year sees INTERMOT continue to champion the cause of electric-driven bikes with its increasing prestigious and popular ‘e-motion: Sustainable in Motion – Electromobility live’ presentation. ‘E-motion’ will showcase “the latest trends and innovations of the industry in pedelecs and e-bikes, e-scooters and e-motorcycles” in a series of indoor exhibits and outdoor live action demonstrations and test ride opportunities.
Project Manager Ingo Riedeberger commented that “we started E-motion in 2010, and the high visitor numbers engaging with the exhibits and the outdoor e-scooter and e-bike action shows that the subject is fashionable and an increasingly important contributor to industry growth and urban mobility”.
A new feature at INTERMOT this year is the debut there of the acclaimed AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building. Established in the United States in 2004 and hosted for many years at the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, the AMD World Championship came to Europe for the first time last year when it was the centre piece of the first BIG BIKE EUROPE expo at Essen, Germany.
This 11th annual AMD World Championship will be the centre-piece of INTERMOT’s Hall 10 custom motorcycle industry action. The acclaimed and unique competition class structure includes the agenda-setting FreeStyle class, from which the competitor-chosen World Champion will emerge, a Street Performance class for bikes where the customisation and modification emphasis is on street-able performance, a ‘Retro-Mod’ class for older bikes of any platform, the Modified Harley-Davidson class and, for the first time, an all new Cafe Racer class.
The AMD World Championship is a unique kind of custom bike show. It is open to professional and ‘privateer’ customisers, and the peer-group-review competitor judging system delivers a genuine design and engineering showcase in which innovation and craftsmanship are honoured by the winner’s fellow customisers.
The AMD World Championship opens for Press Preview on Tuesday September 30th, Trade and Premium visitors on Wednesday October 1st, and public attendance from Thursday October 2nd with the awards ceremony closing the event at 5:00 pm on Sunday October 5th.
www.intermot-cologne.com
www.amdchampionship.com
