Short Distances Matter in Global Trade Fair Competition

I step off the plane and I’m standing on the platform a short while later. The train arrives to the second. And without a single transfer, I arrive at the exhibition center minutes after that. For me, that was simply the norm in Shanghai in the early 2000s.

Across the more than 20 years I lived and worked in Asia – in Hong Kong, Singapore and, not least, Shanghai – I kept seeing the same pattern: In Hong Kong, AsiaWorld-Expo sits right at the airport; in Singapore, the MRT carries guests from world-class Changi Airport straight to the exhibition center in minutes. All of that has been normal there for more than a quarter of a century. At Asia’s big trade show hubs, effortless travel to and from the venue is as much a part of the experience as the halls themselves.

We see the same thing at our own international venues: the Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC), in which Messe Düsseldorf holds a stake, sits directly on Metro Line 7. Exhibitors and visitors notice phenomenal infrastructure at international exhibition centers – and they expect it elsewhere, too.

In Germany, unfortunately, a dense rail-based public transport network still can’t be taken for granted. We plan, review and debate while others are already building. And yet we have an enormous advantage over Shanghai, Hong Kong and the rest: Those Asian metropolises need their vast transportation systems precisely because everything there is so spread out. For us, the opposite is true: Düsseldorf is a city of short distances – the international airport, the exhibition center, the main train station and the city center all sit close together. The current expansion simply provided a seamless link connecting these short distances.

With the new U80 and U81 light rail lines, our guests can for the first time travel straight from the airport terminal to Messe Düsseldorf – in just seven minutes. For us and for our millions of guests, as well as our partners and service providers, that’s a real milestone. Over my career, I’ve organized trade shows in a great many cities around the world – and I’ve rarely seen an exhibition center linked to an airport this seamlessly. That’s world-class.

Düsseldorf is building further on this advantage: The trimodal mobility hub DUSconnect is slated to be built at the airport’s long-distance train station, the network of connected mobility stations keeps growing, and – to me a true glimpse of the future – the Rheinbahn and Rheinmetall subsidiary MIRA are testing teleoperated shuttles at the airport, the same ones already deployed at XPONENTIAL Europe. All of this will make Düsseldorf’s already short distances smarter and more climate-friendly, turning them into something that can actually be taken for granted.

That matters, especially if we want to keep pace with the top tier of trade show locations in international competition. Because people deciding to attend a world-leading trade show these days will always choose the best overall package – which, alongside the quality of a trade show, includes connectivity and the appeal of the location. For international guests, in particular, direct and reliable connections make a noticeable difference. In Asia, I learned how much short distances are worth. In Düsseldorf, we’re demonstrating it with the U80/U81 lines – and beyond.