40 Years of Commitment & Expertise for the Exhibition Industry
ES. What initially sparked your interest in this field, and how has your career evolved over the years?
Karla Juegel. I started my Career on the service-side of the Exhibition Industry (Trade Fair Construction Companies, Event-Agencies) and gained the basic knowledge of organising & managing successful trade-fair participations & corporate-events. I learned precise execution of time-based projects as well as obtaining a service-mentality. Parallel I studied Economy & Marketing in evening classes and combined strategical knowhow with practical experience of Exhibitions & Corporate-Events. Bringing together Messe & Marketing opened the door to the client-side of our Industry. Being employed for Mercedes-Benz and responsible for Trade Fair Participations overseas (at the continents of America and Africa) I changed my perspective and my way of thinking in regard to ‘Events’ as Marketing-Instrument and worked closely that way with the organisers, venue-owners & service-partners of our Industry. In those days this was a complete new approach. I love Automobiles & new Technologies and at the time Mercedes went into the Aviation & Space-Industry, the ‘Deutsche Aerospace’ was found and I took over the worldwide responsibility for Trade-Fairs & Events from the very start of this high-tech enterprise, which was part of the newly established Daimler Headquarters. (big names – big budgets – great projects).
After 10 years with Daimler the next step was to establish my own consulting agency: Messe | Marketing, providing: Consulting – Coaching – Training for all Stakeholders of the international Exhibition Industry.
Additionally I got involved in Education & Qualification of the Young Generation. Again I combined my Expertise in Exhibitions & Concept-Writing to create Qualification Programs for Academies & Universities around the world. Furthermore I started to teach using my experience to motivate the young people to get interested in the profession of Exhibition & Event Management.
ES. What are the most significant changes you have observed in the exhibition industry since you started your career?
Karla Juegel. The most significant changes for me was the Change of Trade Fair Participations from being a Trade & Sales-Platform to become an accepted Marketing-Instrument for live-communication & live brand experiences with a great impact on the Exhibition & Event Industry. The second significant cognition was the proof that personal contacts & reliability cannot be downloaded – even though technology provides a lot of possibilities to get in contact virtually.
Furthermore after Corona the exhibition industry learned to trust itself by having a tool, which offers the basis of business: personal contacts & life-experiences, which are also the basis of the human mentality & behaviour. The more digital our world becomes – the more valuable personal contacts will be.
ES. Could you elaborate on the unique services that Messe | Marketing offers, such as your Change Management Programs and their impact on the industry?
Karla Juegel. My unique service of Change Management is part of my general Training Program which refers to the organisation & execution of Exhibitions, Corporate-Events & Congresses. I designed this extraordinary MCC² Program (Managing Corporate Change) especially for the international Exhibition Industry to meet the challenges of Change-Management and to improve the Implementation of Business Transformation Processes in-house.
ES. Your company is involved in various educational initiatives. How do you see the role of education and training evolving within the exhibition industry?
Karla Juegel. As manager in the exhibition Industry I was constantly looking for well educated staff & junior employees – but in the past our profession did not have any education or university degrees. And I started to get in contact with the authorities & education providers to start a new era for our Industry: Education for future Exhibition & Event Managers. Again I used my knowhow to create and enhance various Education- & University Programs and started to teach at the Academies & Universities around the world, which I still do after 20 years. Today there is a wide offer of programs which now are the basis of quality and success in the Exhibition & Event Industry. My goal of today is to open-up the mind of the Young Generation towards this manifold, creative, interesting and international profession.
ES. As someone who offers consulting and coaching for the exhibition industry, what are the key areas you focus on to drive growth and success for your clients?
Karla Juegel. My key-areas in consulting & coaching the different stakeholder of our industry is to focus on the uniqueness of ‘live-marketing’ events compared to other communication instruments within Marketing & Sales. And you know what I am talking about – there is no other instrument that is able to deliver as many benefits as ‘Live Events’ or ‘Trade Fair Participations’.
ES. How has technology influenced the way exhibitions are planned and executed today compared to when you first entered the industry?
Karla Juegel. The rapid and steady progress of technology brought up many possibilities to enhance & develop the Exhibition Industry especially during the last years. But we have to separate between: 1) Digitalization of processes & organisation activities within the company and 2) Technology to execute Trade Fairs, Corporate-Events and Congresses
as Online- or Hybrid-Events. Those projects focus often on subcomponents of events but ignore the basic task of ‘Live-Events’: Personal Encounters & Life-Experiences. To my opinion, this is contradictory to the main task of ‘Live-Events’ and dangerous for our Industry, which can be proved in many ways. But of course technology can support the main task of ‘Live-Events’ by adding new activities, open-up new business opportunities and create new measures along side the main task.
ES. What are the emerging markets or regions in the exhibition industry that you believe hold significant potential for growth and investment?
Karla Juegel. ‘All business is Local’ let me use this quote as metaphor for the growth of the Exhibition Industry, which is mainly connected to the economy (Import & Export) of each region in the world. Trade is based on the national economy as well as on its growth and international development, which again is strongly connected to politics. But this is another topic to talk about.
ES. What challenges do you foresee for the MICE industry in the coming years, and how can industry professionals effectively address them?
Karla Juegel. The future challenge of the exhibition Industry is to get well educated employees who are willing to work within a very special environment, which at first sight shows some obstacles from the point of view of the Young Generation in regard to their perspective of work-life-balance.
But furthermore our industry offers a lot more benefits, colourful & exciting jobs plus extraordinary future chances because ‘Trade & Personal-Contacts’ will always be the basis of human life and business. Because the more digital our world becomes – to more valuable personal contacts are. Let me mention at the end of this interview, that the Exhibition Industry enhanced my life over all the years in many ways but most of all it set the basis for my open-minded perspective in regard to humans around the world, their mentalities, their ways of thinking and their habit to do business.
