D – After having been postponed for three years due to COVID, a physical PSI Show was staged for the first time again on-site from January 10–12, 2023 at the Düsseldorf Exhibition Centre. Yet the “European leading trade fair for the promotional products industry” was staged alone rather than in conjunction with the promotion, sports and workwear show, PromoTex Expo and viscom that specialises in advertising technology and visual communications as in the years 2019 and 2020. A further new feature was the fact that the first two days of the show were exclusively open to PSI members and proven trade visitors as in former times. Industry customers were only allowed to attend the event on the third day, if they had been invited by a promotional products distributor in advance. In 2020, the event that was initiated in 1963 as a closed-shop event had been open to guests from the field of marketing on all three days.
“The PSI is above all a place for international encounters and a showcase for the promotional products industry,” is how Petra Lassahn, Director of the PSI, explained the key elements of the trade fair during the opening ceremony on the morning of the first day of the show. Indeed, intensive discussions and the presentation of new products dominated the show. An atmosphere of great joy at finally being able to engage in personal encounters and a predominantly optimistic mood prevailed at the stands. The organiser, RX Austria & Germany (formerly Reed Exhibitions), was very confident that the restart of the PSI has laid down the foundation for bringing the most important players of the promotional products industry together again under one roof in the future. Appropriately, this year’s motto of the show was displayed everywhere on screens, banners etc.: ”Home is where PSI is.”
However, this home was significantly smaller than in past years. The product show was exclusively staged in Halls 9 and 10 of the Düsseldorf Show – except for a few side areas that are separated off at each edition to varying extents. In 2020, RX Austria & Germany had filled three and a half halls with PSI exhibitors. The PromoTex Expo had occupied half a hall. The reduction of the space is the result of a decline in the number of exhibitors that is currently typical for the entire exhibition landscape: According to the official figures, the PSI recorded 487 exhibitors (2020: PSI: 720, PromoTex Expo 110) at its premiere after the pandemic. Many companies that were among the regular PSI exhibitors in the past were missing. Especially importers and textile specialists were underrepresented, which meant for example that the offer of electronic products and promotion wear – apart from the trend item “socks” – were considerably less plentiful than in previous years. Instead recycling solutions, particularly in the drinkware segment, products made from ocean plastic, further recycling and upcycling ideas as well as natural materials and colours dominated the show.
According to RX Austria & Germany 10,509 visitors (2020: 16,367 visitors) examined the novelties, whereby the guests came from 75 countries in total, which was only slightly down on the result of the last physical on-site edition (2020: 81 countries) and thus underlines the significance of the show as an important stage for the development and expansion of the international business. According to RX Austria & Germany, roughly every second visitor travelled from abroad, including many trade visitors from Europe, but also from North America, the Middle East and North Africa. Many suppliers interpreted the high readiness to travel as a sign that the industry will recover this year and that the business will further improve after the mostly satisfactory end-of-year business in 2022. What’s more, the majority of the exhibitors rated their participation at the PSI 2023 as a success and praised above all the high attendance, which in some cases even exceeded their expectations.
The next PSI is scheduled to take place in Düsseldorf from January 9–11, 2024. After this year’s comeback, it is now going to be the organiser’s task to fill its own house again and make it more attractive against the backdrop of an increasingly more stabilised trade show landscape.
A detailed report on the PSI 2023 with numerous impressions of the exhibiting companies and their products as well as a resumé of the visitors’ opinions will be printed in eppi magazine No. 147 (February 22, 2023).
// Jasmin Oberdorfer
Photos: Sophia Arnold, Till Barth, Andreas J. Haller, Saskia Karbowiak, Helen Lorenz, Jasmin Oberdorfer, Claudia Pfeifer, Michael Scherer, Klara Walk, © WA Media
