Every year the same… everyone is in dmexco fever. Many meetings, many hours walking from booth to booth and burning feeds at the end of the day. Everyone is busy and has less time during the fair, just shouting out buzzwords and phrases.

We are always waiting and hoping to get a taxi to get to the fair or from the fair to the hotel… Hotel? They are expensive during dmexco, same if we sum up the taxi bills. Now the dmexco itself needs a paid ticket, starting 99 Euro for early bookers, much more for late bookers.

Everyone is coming to Cologne because of meeting people and friends once a year… but every year many say “this was my last time”.

The fair is getting bigger and bigger every year, maybe too big. To much for two days to see everything and everyone. If you join a booth more and more the booth members (sales people) takes less time for you, are just interested in making contacts (getting business cards) to follow-up after the fair. Do we need to be there therefore?

Let’s come to the parties the day before the fair and on the first day. YES, they are the best reason to join dmexco. More and more I hear people who are in Cologne these days but do not join the fair.. they meet people outside the fair in a hotel conference room or at one of the many parties…. To many parties, it’s difficult to decide for the right one and get tickets.

So why do we join dmexco again and again?

For Onliner who are connected in the industry  it’s more and more uninteresting to be there… they have other possibilities to meet their contacts. For people outside the industry it’s a great place to be and get contacts, impressions ind “interesting” workshops, seminars and speeches.

With GroupM (WPP) there is a big agency network (Maxus, MEC, MediaCom, Mindshare, QUISMA, Xaxis, Outrider, Catalyst, Quasar, IEG, Movent, Vocanic) which decided to have the first time no booth at dmexco, they are just joining by some people.

The question is rising up for whom the fair is targeted? The target is shifting. For many out of the industry the fair is not longer a must have. So it’s not any longer a meeting point for Onliner, it’s (provocative spoken) just a place for sales people to make contacts to people out of the industry.

Happy Networking!