Kölnmesse – A Global Event for 100 Years

Aware that stagnation in an increasingly competitive trade fair environment quickly leads to a loss of relevance, the organizer, the city and the state are constantly making changes. Their Messe 3.0 concept is geared towards qualitative further development. With the Confex – the Conference and Exhibition Center completed in 2024 – the exhibition grounds gained a new, attractive meeting place with 50 event rooms. The organizer, Kölnmesse GmbH, is networked worldwide and also supports numerous trade fairs abroad.

Digital Worlds of Experience

The Confex embodies the organizer’s strategy of linking the concepts of trade fair and conference more closely in order to explore each topic in greater depth. The aim is to expand the role of Kölnmesse from pure showcases to holistic topic platforms. For this reason, Kölnmesse cultivates close synergies between related trade fairs, allowing exhibitors to serve similar target groups and specialist topics at several events.

This allows important questions about the future to be discussed at the trade fair in an interdisciplinary manner and across industries. Examples include questions such as how the world of tomorrow can be fed, what living and working environments will look like in the future, and what changes Industry 4.0 will bring about. The strategy of consistently aligning Kölnmesse with the requirements of digitalization – already adopted in the Masterplan 2006 and given new urgency in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic – is intended to create new interactive experience spaces and expand the audience of trade fair visitors to include virtual participants.

With regard to this digital strategy, the organizer itself speaks of the cornerstones of “flexibility, attractiveness and eventization”. Some fruits of this focus are the introduction of high-performance 5G technologies in the exhibition halls, the transformation of the exposition into a “smart city” and the staging of topics through an immersive variety of experiences in the finest high-end quality. Kölnmesse lives the idea of sustainability and covers its energy consumption with green electricity generated by its own photovoltaic systems.

Trade Since Roman Times

Cologne’s tradition as a trade fair city could hardly be greater: founded back in Roman times on a central trade route, the Via Belgica, the city attracted numerous merchants. The trade road connected the north of the Roman Empire with the south, and a dense network of local trade routes opened up Cologne’s hinterland. In addition, as a prosperous Roman city, Cologne fitted perfectly into the ambitions of Charlemagne to revive the Roman imperial idea and to found an empire with the Frankish Realm that emphasized its Roman roots and stood in continuity with Rome. In 785, the “founding father of Europe” made Cologne an archbishopric.

Thus, Cologne held its first Easter fair as early as the year 967. From 1360, Cologne had the right to hold two exhibitions per year. Emperor Charles IV had granted the city the coveted trade fair seal. The staple right brought the people of Cologne further wealth, Cologne’s guilds were among the most influential in the Western world, and as the Middle Ages drew to a close, Cologne became a member of the Hanseatic League, perhaps the first supranational confederation in the world. Despite this rich tradition, Kölnmesse draws its direct lineage from the spring exhibition of 1924.

100 Years of Kölnmesse – Konrad Adenauer’s Vision

The 1924 spring fair was organized on the initiative of Cologne’s long-serving mayor, Konrad Adenauer, the first Federal Chancellor of the later Federal Republic, who headed the cathedral city from 1917 until he was stripped of power by the Nazi regime in 1933. Not least due to the outstanding success of the 1914 Cologne materials exhibition with around one million visitors, Adenauer had recognized Cologne’s potential for events of this kind and planned to re-establish a permanent trade fair in the cathedral city.

In addition to Adenauer (Centre Party), the 1924 spring fair was attended by Reich President Friedrich Ebert (SPD) and Reich President Wilhelm Marx (Centre Party). After the devastating crisis year of 1923, which reached new lows with the Franco-Belgian occupation of the Ruhr and hyperinflation, the exposition was intended to help revive trade, serve the ideal of friendship and understanding between nations, and regain Cologne’s former economic supremacy in the Rhineland.

Adenauer demonstrated his visionary thinking elsewhere during this period when, at around the same time as the planning of the Cologne trade fair, he commissioned the start of construction of the Cologne–Bonn highway – Germany’s first autobahn, completed in 1932.

Although the exhibition, which already opened its doors on today’s exhibition grounds in Cologne-Deutz, showed the hoped-for pulling power with around 600,000 visitors, the exhibition site, limited to about 32,000 m², was bursting at the seams. As a result, only 2,800 of the registered exhibitors could be accommodated. The City of Cologne drew two lessons from the fair: on the one hand, it established the exhibition at the same location as a regular fixture in the city, and on the other, it has continuously expanded the site ever since – today it covers 384,000 m², which has made Kölnmesse the fifth-largest exhibition venue in the world.

Interactive Exhibition Grounds

Geared towards the highest quality and attractiveness, the exhibition grounds on the banks of the Rhine in Cologne-Deutz are continuously being modernized and expanded. The centerpieces of Kölnmesse are the Confex and the Congress Centrum with 40 event rooms, which consists of the North and East congress centers. The landmark and orientation point of the fair is the 85-meter-high trade fair tower erected by Adolf Abel in 1928, with its three-faced Hermes heads.

The eleven exhibition halls, likewise state-of-the-art, vary in size in order to do justice to every event. They can be flexibly optimized for each event using the latest technologies and can partly be connected with one another. The outdoor area of 100,000 m² – gigantic for an exhibition venue – offers excellent opportunities for encounters in the fresh air. The fair also has 12,000 parking spaces as well as entrances facing all four points of the compass.

Getting to the Trade Fair

One plus point of Kölnmesse is its excellent accessibility. The exhibition grounds are located just 2.5 kilometers from Cologne Central Station in an absolutely central part of the city, which visitors can reach by any means of transport. Even the ICE high-speed train calls at the Köln/Deutz-Messe station, and Cologne/Bonn Airport, which is connected to the rail network, is only 15 km from the exhibition grounds as the crow flies. Arriving by car is similarly straightforward, as no fewer than ten autobahns feed into the motorway ring around Cologne, which takes visitors directly to the exhibition grounds.

Major Leading Global Trade Fairs at Kölnmesse

Intermot – Bikers Among Themselves

At Intermot, motorcycle fans are among themselves and can admire the best motorcycle models. Accessories are also on offer in abundance. In the course of the energy transition, innovative e-bikes were also presented in 2025.

• The next Intermot will take place from February 19 to 21, 2027

IMM Cologne – My Home Is My Castle

IMM Cologne is an international furniture and interior design trade fair. Let yourself be inspired on how to transform your home into an oasis of well-being. Denmark, the IMM’s first partner country, offers insights into what makes the Scandi style so valuable and what fills a hygge living culture with life.

• The next IMM will take place from January 19 to 22, 2027.

IDS – When the Dentist Has to Drill

IDS is the world’s leading trade fair for dental technology. 1,788 exhibitors and 120,000 visitors bear vivid witness to the importance of IDS. IDS showcases the innovations in the field of dental technology and presents products that contribute to dental care and dental health.

• The next IDS will take place from March 16 to 20, 2027

Gamescom – What Are the Best Computer Games?

Gamers can hardly wait for the next Gamescom. This is where the heart of the gaming industry beats, and everyone who is anyone in computer games attends the most important trade fair for computer games. At Gamescom, players get to know the best new releases, discover the latest innovations in immersive technologies such as VR and AI, and can try their hand once again in the retro area at the favorite games they grew up with as children.

• The next Gamescom will take place from August 26 to 30, 2026

Anuga – Health and Culinary Delights

At Anuga, everything revolves around culinary delights. This is where the latest food trends are uncorked, novel foods and beverages are presented, and the connection between health and nutrition is explored in depth. Anuga is known for its diversity. One of its ten trade fairs, Anuga Alternatives, deals with the possible superfoods of the future, namely algae, insects, mushroom-based proteins and cell-cultured meat, which allows meat to be eaten without an animal having to die.

• The next Anuga will take place from October 9 to 13, 2027.