Messe Frankfurt pulls the plug on Paperworld
World’s largest stationery fair cancelled by COVID.
Organisers of Paperworld, the world’s largest stationery exhibition, have cancelled the event at the last minute due to COVID concerns.
Last month, Messe Frankfurt confirmed that more than 500 exhibitors from 45 countries had signed up to this year’s event to be held in Frankfurt, Germany, from 29 January to 1 February.
Messe Frankfurt’s Phillipp Ferger said the number of exhibitors represented around 65 per cent of the previous participation level.
Messe Franfurt said the “extreme deterioration”, both in Germany and in Europe as a whole, due to the spread of the Omicron variant that made it “impossible” for four of its trade shows – Paperworld, Christmasworld, Creativeworld and Ambiente – to run as scheduled.
Germany has been classified as a high-risk area and the government has called for major events to be cancelled, and many companies have imposed travel bans on their employees.
Currently, there are no plans to hold any of the impacted shows as physical events during 2022.
Paperworld was last held in January 2020, just prior to the onset of the COVID pandemic.
Update on Sydney gift fairs
Reed Exhibitions has cancelled its Sydney Reed Gift Fair, scheduled for 19-22 February 2022.
“While we ended 2021 optimistic that Reed Gift Fairs Sydney would run safely and successfully next month, it has become clear after consultation with our community that the recent COVID-19 Omicron outbreaks have made it extremely difficult to confidently plan for the upcoming event,” the company said.
As a result, we have made the necessary decision to postpone Reed Gift Fairs Sydney to the new dates of 9-12 April 2022, co-located with Life Instyle at the ICC Sydney.
Meantime, after two years of ‘no shows’, AGHA has decided to hold its Sydney Gift Fair as planned from 18 to 21 February at Sydney Olympic Park.
AGHA CEO Wayne Castle says there has been high demand from retailers to see new products and meet with new suppliers.
“Continually cancelling business-to-business events would lead to a huge shift and downturn in the way people market their businesses, make sales and communicate with clients and suppliers,” he said.
Date Published:
17 January 2022