News

ZOW 2007 takes Shape: 80 Percent of Exhibition Space already allocated

Five months before the start of the annual ZOW – Zuliefermesse Ost-Westfalen 2007, which takes place at the Bad Salzuflen Exhibition Center on February 26 – March 1, 2007, event organizer Survey can report a healthy balance sheet for bookings: over 80 percent of last year’s exhibition space are already reserved.

Show organizer Peter H. Meyer, C.E.O of Survey Marketing + Consulting GmbH
& Co. KG, Bielefeld/Germany, is very much looking forward to the 2007 edition ZOW: “With ZOW already in receipt of firm bookings for four-fifths of the available space as early as five months before the event, I see no reason for the foreboding we’ve been hearing from those individuals who would like to change the cycle of ZOW.”

Dispute damages the Industry

For Meyer, the current debate about leading shows “versus” regional shows misses the point completely: “Some suppliers might need their so-called ‘leading’ shows, while others can manage quite well without them. ZOW has its own guiding principle – the character of ZOW has always been determined by the multitude of visitors from Germany´s furniture production region of Westphalia. Our exhibitors have valued ZOW for over a decade now as a forum which enjoys very close contact to its target market – and as an event that definitely generates turnover for them. Those who are currently orchestrating this unhelpful debate and attempting to drive a wedge through the industry with their sweeping black-and-white portrayal of the issues are doing so either for personal motives or because they don’t understand market relations. In either case, it can only serve to damage their customers, the Germany furniture industry."


Every Business has to follow its own Market Interests

As Meyer emphasizes, so-called "heavyweights” of the furniture supply sector have only come across ZOW in the last three to four years, but many of the industry’s leading lights have taken part in ZOW for very good reasons: "Companies like Egger for example have recognized that it’s the early timing of ZOW that works so well for product range decisions within the furniture industry. After ZOW 2006, Bernd Riechers, Managing Director of Hettich Holding and member of the ZOW Advisory Board, congratulated me on this year´s success. He’s been exhibiting for years at ZOW but 2006, he said, was apparently the best ever in terms of business success."

Meyer sees ample potential in the future of ZOW: “Every business has to follow its own market interests. With ZOW, we offer the international supply industry a distinctive and dedicated event right at the heart of the region where their customer base is located. It stays true to the marketing principle that the seller always has to come to the buyer – and not the other way round! It’s this timeless principle that has made ZOW such a great success for our exhibitors and this is just the challenge that ZOW will live up to in the future.”