8 Reasons Why ISM is the Trade Show for You
ISM sets the trends when it comes to sweets and snacks innovations and establishes brands in new foreign markets. It makes perfect sense to reserve an exhibition booth as it offers a quite fast return on investment. The Internationale Süßwarenmesse further boosts its profile thanks to being co-located with ProSweets Cologne. Together they’re a powerhouse of trade shows, which draw the biggest players in the sweets, confectionery and snacks industry to Cologne, Germany. During the last edition, ISM managed to exceed 38,000 trade visitors over the course of the show. That’s more than satisfying
There’s quite a lot of products to discover at ISM. The exhibition space is divided in eight major sectors, which represent the entire value chain of sweets and confectionery. You have chocolate and chocolate products, sugar confectionery, biscuits, snack foods, ice cream, deep-frozen sweets and raw pastes, trend snacks and natural snacks, and handcrafted creations. Each segment is quite dedicated to showcasing high-quality products and highlight emerging themes. For instance, one of the biggest hits at the chocolate area was vegan chocolate options.
As a result, exhibitors can hope to meet visitors that come from far, wide and deep in the processing and distribution chain. You’re able to expand your client list and get noticed from all corners of the industry. You meet with filling stations-chains, hypermarkets, trade chains, suppliers for foodservice, pastry shops, cafés, bakeries, confectioneries, cash & carry operations, bakery requirement wholesale, health food wholesalers, drugstore chains, department stores, online-food retailers, vending machine operators, nutrition scientists, food chemists, producers of sweets and snacks according to the list of products.
Exhibitors come to discover the biggest buyers on an international level. We’re talking names like Kaufland, Kroger, Metro, Coop, Whole Foods, Edeka, Aldi, Carrefour, Amazon, Walgreens and Costco. Those are brands with name recognition across the entire world. That’s what ISM is all about. Introducing supply and demand at an incredible scale. The markets you can easily get into range from Belgium, Italy, Poland and France to as far as the USA, Canada and China.
Trends are a key to the show’s success. The Trend Court@ISM is one of the most important parts of ISM. This space is dedicated to exploring what’s new and groundbreaking. You can enjoy the Sweet Trends line of presentations, which are held throughout the day by Innova Market Insights. Startups are welcome to showcase their brands and products to a receptive audience at the Start-up Area. Last at the Court is the Expert Stage, where first-rate speakers hold keynote speeches on the hottest trends that will change the face of the industry.
Buyers always gravitate towards the New Product Showcase, which was added back in 2009 and has been the best way to introduce fresh flavors and exciting products. Visitors engage with their senses, can do tastings and talk in detail about the products. This feature gives visitors a snapshot of the current state of sweets and snacks. At the end, top three innovative products are chosen as the winners of the showcase, which gives exhibitors even more incentive to innovate. In 2020, the showcase had 100 exhibitors from 33 nations and a total of 178 products on display.
Currently, as ISM approaches its 2022 edition during the coronavirus pandemic, organizers are at work to create programming centered around webinars leading right up to the trade show, which will be held in a hybrid form. An example of a webinar that’s already passed and is available to download is the Experiential Snacking: Elevating the Sensory Experience.
As you can see, ISM is not to be ignored and has a lot to offer its participants. Especially now that the industry is set to return to some kind of normalcy after two years of not being able to host trade shows. ISM will serve as a much-needed touchstone for important conversations to take place and for old friends to meet once again.
