The Covid 19 pandemic is also having an impact on the international environmental technology sector. The world's leading trade fair for water, sewage, waste and raw materials management is therefore being cancelled this year; the next IFAT will take place from 30 May to 3 June 2021.
In a Munich Trade Fair Centre survey Among the IFAT exhibitors, the majority of the exhibitors had against holding IFAT in September 2020 has been cancelled. In order to guarantee all customers the greatest possible planning security, IFAT 2020 will not take place in close consultation with the Executive Board of the Exhibitor Advisory Board.
„A safe and successful IFAT 2020 for everyone involved was our most important concern. Unfortunately, this objective can no longer be realised at the new date due to the still unpredictable circumstances,“ explains Stefan Rummel, Managing Director of Messe München.
The trade fair had already been postponed from May to September. Messe München and the IFAT team see themselves as partners to the industry, even in these turbulent times: „We will further develop our platform and supplement it digitally, to revitalise the environmental sector - both at its home base in Munich and internationally,“ says Rummel.
Clear opinion of the industry
The decision is based on intensive personal dialogue with industry associations, partners and numerous exhibitors from all segments of IFAT. A recent survey has confirmed this opinion. The survey was conducted online in the week after Easter among all registered exhibitors at IFAT; 1,933 international exhibitor representatives took part. 64 per cent stated that they did not consider it justifiable to hold IFAT in September 2020 due to the coronavirus crisis (737 respondents) or they would like to take a break due to low expectations of the trade fair's success (507 respondents). 85 per cent of those surveyed do not expect the first half of 2021 at the earliest. with an economic recovery in the environmental technology sector.
Source: Munich Trade Fair Centre
