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#Trade Shows & Events

ArchitekTOUR

With ArchitekTOUR Heinze has created a new format for the networking of architects and manufacturers. Since 2010 this has been enhancing purely trade fair events with selected talks and presentations. This year's congress will be taking place at Frankfurt's trade fair centre on 25 and 26 November, providing over 1000 architects and 80 exhibitors with an ideal opportunity for a fascinating dialogue on the subject of ‘Architecture in the era of information and knowledge’.

More than 1,000 architects attended seven events in seven different cities last summer, despite the often tropical temperatures. These events were organised as part of the 2015 ArchitekTOUR under the motto ‘Architecture for education, research and work in the age of globalisation and digitisation’. The number of participants at each event had occasionally to be limited to 150, while the decision to limit the number of exhibitors to 14 gave the events a certain air of exclusivity.

The orders of magnitude at the congress, which has been the final event of the ArchitekTOUR since 2012, are quite different. Heinze expects more than 1,000 architects to attend the one-and-a-half-day event, to be held at the Frankfurt Messegelände exhibition grounds on 25 and 26 November. Together with the more than 80 exhibitors, this will once again represent a highly efficient communication platform.

It all started in 2010. The first ArchitekTOUR took place during the football World Cup in South Africa, in three empty VIP lounges of German football stadiums. There was great interest in these impressive sports facilities: it was the first time that many architects had set foot in such temples of popular sport. The ArchitekTOUR was given a new motto in each subsequent year.

Heinze was well aware of the costs of preparation and implementation of these events before it embarked on this project, and it had discussed the risk that interest in this new approach might be disappointing. ‘Mind you, we did have a firm basis of 50 years’ experience in the world of marketing, and 30 years of continuous successful links with architects to build these considerations on,’ recalls Christian Stallknecht, ArchitekTOUR project leader at Heinze. He mentions the various demand-based print and online resources available in-house in this connection. ‘Apart from our various research tools that facilitate communication between architects and builders, it seemed to us that there was an obvious need to bring the two parties even closer together so that they could really get to know one another on a personal basis. Organising a series of events seemed to be the most effective way of achieving this aim.’ The resources available in-house provided the basis for a clearly more effective approach, which would fill the niche between huge international trade fairs on the one hand and equally universally oriented congresses on the other.

‘Our firm intention was to make the ArchitekTOUR something really special. We wanted to add a livelier element to purely lecture-based events, such as those already offered by the professional associations, while on the other hand we believed that trade fairs do not educate visitors enough as lectures do. Our format was quite innovative at the time,’ explains Stallknecht. It is based on a smart concept that enables participants to make the best possible use of their time by keeping the balance between exhibitions and lectures subject to lively variation.

The current package of events, tailor-made to appeal to the relevant target groups, was developed through a series of countless working sessions. The objective right from the start was to appeal to a very wide target group, from individual pioneers working in a rural setting to team leaders of renowned architecture studios in the big city. Another target we had in mind right from the word go was to attract roughly 1,000 participants to each tour. The exhibitors also aimed to reach as large an audience as possible, devoting as much attention to small consultancy bureaus as to large ones.

‘It follows that our own aims are completely in line with those of the exhibitors. Experience has shown that both exhibitors and visitors are in an excellent mood at the end of the two-day congress,’ stresses Christian Stallknecht. Heinze’s role during the tour is mainly to promote networking, and to ensure that everything runs smoothly in each event.

Both the tour and the congress are basically aimed at helping participants to keep up to date with the latest developments in the field in an attractive format compressed into a relatively short space of time through company presentations, providing the opportunity for personal contact with the leading thinkers in the field, keeping one’s fingers on the pulse of modern architecture, getting to know the latest trends and last but not least meeting colleagues and exchanging news and views.

Top-class presentations to the well-attended congress were one of the main attractions, together with the exhibits and the opportunity to network with colleagues

Details

  • Frankfurt, Germany
  • ArchitekTOUR Heinze

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