The RheinMain CongressCenter in Wiesbaden was the location venue for the GWW Trend for the fifth time.
Upon the invitation of the German Promotional Products Association, GWW, the promotional products industry came together for the autumn edition of the GWW Trend at the RheinMain CongressCenter (RMCC) in Wiesbaden from 9 am to 5 pm on September 22, 2023. Just like at the two-day spring event in Cologne earlier this February, exclusively representatives from the promotional products trade were allowed to attend the event, including also guests from the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland. The event lent the visitors the opportunity to inform themselves about the product trends of the haptic advertising sector.
The exhibitors held a large spectrum of articles in store at the 145 stands ranging from modern-design and in many cases sustainably produced promotion classics like ballpoint pens, notebooks, bags and textiles, through to novelties like vegan sneakers made from wine leather, innovative stain removers for the road or practical water quality testers. Especially suppliers, who are not participating at the PSI Show at the beginning of January, took advantage of the chance to present first novelties and further developments for the coming year.
Although according to the feedback of several exhibitors, the hall didn’t fill up as quickly as last year in the morning and several exhibitors also expected the flow of visitors to ebb off early in the afternoon, the GWW welcomed almost exactly the same amount of trade visitors as at the last edition. According to the official attendance figures, 591 promotional products consultants (2022: 590 consultants ) travelled to the GWW Trend Autumn. Whereby many people criticised picking Friday as the venue date – the last autumn edition of GWW Trend was staged on a Tuesday. Also a significant difference to 2022: The optimistic mood that prevailed last year after a new board had been elected one day previously, was missing. The new zeal for the association work that one had hoped as a result of the new management has namely fizzled out to a large extent due to internal discrepancies and the new elections. Furthermore, the 2023 GWW Annual Meeting that had once again been held one day before the closed shop event hadn’t run smoothly, which also had an impact on the mood barometer of the trade show.
The coming spring edition of the GWW Trend is scheduled to take place in Frankfurt on February 27, 2024, followed by a GWW Newsweek event one day later at the same location.
// Jasmin Oberdorfer
Photos: Jasmin Oberdorfer, © WA Media
