The New Era of the Leading Interior Design Trade Fair

The imm cologne 2023’s goal is above all one thing: ambitious! The former exclusively furniture trade fair, imm cologne, is continuously expanding into a trade fair for interior design and living: an inspirational and visionary gathering for everyone who wants to shape the home life of tomorrow. From the imm cologne’s point of view, leading trade fairs must, in the future, develop an enormous power that goes far beyond the presentation of product innovations. Topics that move society must be accentuated more strongly and brought into an industry-relevant context in order to make way for a fascinating and better future.

This is precisely where the imm cologne sees its future task: in providing a platform for innovative companies, furnishing brands and industry personalities. A platform on which socially relevant topics are discussed and approaches to solutions are sought. That is how win-win situations are created for both society and companies. The Plaza concept creates new meeting formats and encounter points where people can discuss, discover and make changes in the industry. Highlights such as the “spots” in the Pure Halls generate more inspiration and promote exchange - they will present fresh and alternative perspectives.

All in all, with the relaunch in January 2023, the imm cologne explicitly defines and positions itself as the international platform for relevant content and business.

But what will be new at the imm cologne 2023? What can exhibitors and visitors look forward to at the upcoming fair?

Firstly, in addition to TRENDimmPACT – the most important global trends for the industry – so-called “spots” will be installed at the trade fair in the future. The circular areas are specially designed for optimal exchange and thematic discourse and, with catering facilities, invite visitors to linger and create new ideas. Furthermore, the “spots” are available to exhibitors for staging their brands and visions in a content-driven manner. In 2023, the focus of the SPOTS will be on topics such as textiles, light, art, smart or young designers in the form of the Pure Talent Contests .

At the same time, the spatial shift of the Pure area to Hall 1 and adjacent halls offers exhibitors a new expanded option for brand positioning: inspired by the appearance of art fairs, “Pure Galleries” has been created as a high-profile presentation world for minimalist, personalized brand spaces. Unlike the “Spots”, which are specifically designed to accentuate new topic highlights, “Pure Galeries” offers exhibiting companies a creative platform to effectively stage their brand and current products.

There will also be some changes in the home area: In the future, the focus here will be on important business topics in the industry, such as digitalization and logistics. A community plaza will be created in the Home area, where a wide variety of challenges facing the industry can be discussed.

Last but not least, the structure of the halls will be more compact and diverse in the future. For example, imm cologne 2023 will promote a greater mix of smaller, medium-sized and larger stands to make the trade fair experience even more attractive for everyone involved. Depending on the business or content focus of the halls, offers for networking or inspiration will be integrated. This way, a future- and solution-oriented exchange can take place anywhere and at any time.

The past two years have led to overall societal changes within the industry, which are reflected in changes in the consumer behavior in the medium to long term. The entire furnishings market is undergoing multidimensional change and must find its own individual path for the “new normal”. The key questions are: How do we meet the changing needs of our customers? How do we deal with the changing order cycles, the changing business models of circular economy and the increasing online trade? To answer these and many other questions, we need a central place where we can talk and discuss solutions together. This is precisely the role that the imm cologne 2023 envisions for itself as a business trade fair.

However, a trade fair that defines a guiding principle for itself must redefine the term business in the sense of the changed framework conditions. For this reason, the imm cologne will focus even more clearly on the topics of content and business in the future and thus become a content mover and business enabler in 2023.