‘Near Impossible’ to Plan IFA 2021 Safe From COVID-19, Says Cancellation

Organizers’ surprise announcement Wednesday canceling the Sept. 3-7 IFA 2021 as “a physical live event as originally planned” due to the ongoing pandemic happened to coincide with the vote of ambassadors from 27 EU states adopting the European Commission’s May 3 proposal lifting restrictions on nonessential travel through EU borders for foreign visitors showing proof of COVID-19 vaccinations.

IFA’s sudden scrapping as an in-person and virtual-only event came as industry-watchers talk increasingly of seeing light at the end of the long COVID-19 tunnel. It appeared to throw a surprise new wrinkle into global trade show planning for at least the rest of 2021, though NAB coincidentally announced the opening of registration Wednesday for the in-person Oct 9-13 NAB Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

“New global health uncertainties” forced IFA 2021's cancellation, said organizers Messe Berlin and gfu. IFA 2020 was one of the few world events last year to welcome show attendees to a physical exhibition hall, albeit in vastly downsized numbers, while the show’s content was streamed to those who participated virtually. After promising for months that IFA 2021 would return at “full scale” as a physical show, Wednesday’s decision means this year’s IFA instead will regress from a hybrid physical and digital event in 2020 to no show at all. A Messe Berlin spokesperson confirmed Wednesday that promoters have no plans to attempt to stage IFA 2021 as a virtual-only event.

Organizers decided to cancel after “detailed conversations with public health experts and multiple stakeholders,” they said. “Ultimately, several key global health metrics did not move as fast in the right direction as had been hoped for.” They cited the “rapid emergence” of new COVID-19 variants in India and other world regions, plus “continued uncertainties about the speed” of vaccine rollouts.

As a case in point, only 16% of the population in the 30 EU and European Economic Area member countries were fully vaccinated through Wednesday, including only 13.5% in Germany, reported the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. That compared with 37.5% of the U.S. population that had received two vaccine doses, as reported Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Promoters acted to cancel IFA 2021 a little more than four months out in deference to all who were “committed or interested in coming to Berlin,” and need to plan “well ahead with regards to budgets, investments and travel,” they said, “not just for IFA, but all similar events around the world.” CTA declined comment on IFA 2021's cancellation but has said it’s committed to returning CES 2022 as a physical show to the LVCC in early January.

Another IFA 2021 complication was that parts of the vast Messe Berlin fairgrounds continue being used as a mass vaccination site and emergency field hospital, said organizers: “Both are now likely to be required for longer than originally anticipated.”

New public health developments “introduced too much risk into everybody's planning” for IFA 2021, said Kai Hillebrandt, chairman of gfu Consumer & Home Electronics. “There simply are now too many uncertainties,” he said. “Right now it has become near impossible for anyone to responsibly plan their participation in any trade show.” Organizers “did not take this decision lightly,” said Messe Berlin CEO Martin Ecknig. “The efforts to contain this pandemic -- from the rollout of vaccination programs to the resumption of international travel -- did not happen at the pace we had hoped for. Given these developments, this difficult and disappointing decision was inevitable.”

To IFA 2021 outsiders not privy to organizers’ internal deliberations, Wednesday’s announcement was a stunning reversal from recent statements that the show would return at full strength in September. IFA 2021 is planning a “full-scale and real-life return” Sept. 3-7 to the exhibition halls and fairgrounds of Messe Berlin, after its “deliberately small-scale” physical-virtual hybrid version in 2020, said promoters as recently as April 15 (see 2104150017). “The global vaccination effort is gaining huge momentum, while tough lockdowns are finally beginning to pay off,” they said then, in stark contrast to their updated assessments Wednesday.