Highlights

It was the biggest acquisition in the more than 100-year history of the MCH Group: the takeover of MC² (“MC-squared”), a leading live marketing company in the USA. MC² designs customised brand worlds for exhibitions, conferences, corporate events and consumer meetings as well as for fixed locations. Its client companies include Samsung, Toyota, Alibaba and Canon.

All design concepts of MC² are based on the idea of enabling personal encounters in spaces that represent the brand and highlight it in an effective manner. A combination of technology, design and storytelling gives rise to vibrant, digitally-networked settings that interact with the visitor.

MC² is an independent company within the MCH Group's “Live Marketing Solutions” division. The MC² Group has its head office in Chestnut Ridge, New York, and employs more than 350 people at 15 locations in the USA and Germany (Düsseldorf).

With the acquisition of MC², the MCH Group has greatly boosted its international presence and global activities and has also further expanded the services it provides in the live marketing field. Locally and globally operating clients can now be served in all the key markets – Europe, USA, Asia and the Middle East – and in all the different areas of live marketing.

MC²

Intelligent electricity supply, multifunctional street lights, new forms of mobility: in smart cities, the people and the infrastructure are digitally linked to each other so as to guarantee a maximum quality of life while consuming a minimum of resources. In order to support cities and communes in becoming smart cities and create a link between the public sector and the world of science and research, the MCH Group has launched the new SmartSuisse format.

This strategy conference, accompanied by a specialist exhibition, covers the most promising smart city topics and was held for the first time on 27 April 2017 in the Congress Center Basel. A total of 435 people from 100 cities and communes attended – coming from city governments, municipal administrations and utilities, public transport companies, research institutions and also businesses. All the visitor and exhibitor places were booked out.

Thirty experts delivered papers on the core topics of smart governance, smart urban mobility and smart infrastructure. These were then covered in greater depth in workshops. In the exhibition, visitors were able to see from 24 smart city suppliers just how cities can use digitisation to their advantage. As partners for the first SmartSuisse, it proved possible to attract companies including Swiss Railways, the Post Office, Elektron, Microsoft, Siemens, SAP and Swisscom.

SmartSuisse

At the Expo 2017 in Astana, more than 100 countries presented ideas and developments on the theme of “Future Energy”. Some 3.9 million visitors attended the world expo, which was staged in the capital of Kazakhstan from 10 June to 10 September 2017. And the MCH companies Expomobilia and Winkler Livecom featured in the midst of all the goings-on.

Together with Atelier Oï, Expomobilia was commissioned by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) to implement Switzerland’s “Flower Power” pavilion. The result: an interactive exhibition on Swiss know-how and innovativeness in the field of energy efficiency and renewable energies.

The four thematic houses in the middle of the pavilion constituted the centrepiece. While the visitors were taking a look at the expo theme in the houses, the environment outside the houses transformed itself into a flowering and poetic installation. The Swiss pavilion was awarded two prizes.

Winkler was commissioned by the London design and event agency "Imagination" to implement the technical side of the Shell pavilion and was responsible for the lighting and the audio and video. Shell presented itself with the “Shell Energy Lab” at Expo 2017. Different activities, films and presentations highlighted the possibilities of renewable energies and electricity production in general. Visitors were able to participate interactively in what was taking place.

Expomobilia

Winkler Livecom

For the 2017 ITI Symposium, almost 5,000 dentists and dental technicians from 90 countries came to Hall 1 at Messe Basel. This made it the biggest ever ITI congress. The organisers of the International Team for Implantology were delighted.

The theme of the symposium staged from 4 to 6 May 2017 was “Key Factors for long-term success.” And, for this, the exhibition hall was transformed into a futuristic airport setting. The welcome greetings were delivered by flight attendants, the presentations were announced on a departure board, and the catering was served at departure gates. The 32 000 square metres of space on the first floor were used to set up not only a plenary auditorium seating 5,000 but also an industry exhibition and the catering zone.

More than 80 international experts shared their knowledge with some 4,800 participants in plenary and break-out sessions. The presentations were portrayed on three large screens, and booths were provided for interpreters to translate simultaneously into eleven languages. The Poken networking tool also had its première, allowing digital visiting cards to be exchanged through near-field communication.

The congress was a complete success. The promoters and organisers at ITI, which has been networking the global players in dental implantology for 30 years, and also at Interplan, praised the functional nature of the hall, the modern infrastructure and the working relationship with the team at Messe Basel: “Basel was the best possible location for our international mega-meeting. Messe Basel was a great partner for our meeting: flexible, understanding, efficient and creative.”

ITI World Symposium

Growth in the portfolio of regional art fairs: in February 2017, the MCH Group acquired a 25.1 percent holding in art.fair International GmbH in Cologne, the organisers of ART DÜSSELDORF. The new art fair celebrated its première in November.

Against the industrial backdrop of the popular Areal Böhler, around 80 established and young galleries from 21 countries displayed modern and contemporary art. The majority of galleries came from Germany and the Benelux states. The participants also included well-known names such as Marlborough Contemporary and David Zwirner from New York. The galleries reported strong sales and the media coverage was highly positive.

The 43,000 visitors to the fair had the opportunity to try out an innovative feature: an app developed by the MCH Group that links the real works of art to the digital exhibition catalogue by means of image recognition. If the user photographs a work of art, they will immediately receive all the information about it on their smartphone.

The holding acquired in art.fair International GmbH marks a further step in the group’s implementation of its strategic initiative to build up a new portfolio of regional art fairs on a worldwide basis as part of the MCH Group’s “Global Collector Events” strategy.

ART DÜSSELDORF

Antiques and jewellery, old and contemporary works of art, design and ceramics, plus a great deal more: Masterpiece London is the world's leading cross-collecting event and presents key collector's items from a range of disciplines. In November, the MCH Group acquired 67.5% of Masterpiece London Ltd, which stages the art fair of this same name.

Since 2010, Masterpiece London has been held annually, at the end of June, at the historic Royal Hospital Chelsea. One hundred and fifty leading gallery owners and specialists present exhibits from 6000 years of art history. Antiques feature at the fair, together with decorative art, 19th-century art and Sèvres porcelain, 18th-century mirrors and contemporary curiosities.

With its unique, interdisciplinary focus, Masterpiece London fits in ideally with the MCH Group's collector events portfolio, with Art Basel (in Basel, Miami Beach and Hong Kong), with the design and regional art fairs and also with the newly launched Grand Basel in the automotive sector. Over the next few years, Masterpiece London is to be additionally staged at further locations in the USA, Asia and the Middle East. The next edition is being held in London from 28 June to 4 July 2018.

Masterpiece London

Rare vintage cars, exclusive new automobiles and future-oriented studies: the MCH Group launched Grand Basel in August. Grand Basel is the first global show for the world’s most important and valuable automobiles. At the new show, the automobiles are to be presented for the first time in a cultural setting of design, architecture and art.

An advisory board headed by Cologne design professor Paolo Tumminelli decides which vehicles are to be put on display. Grand Basel is aimed at international connoisseurs, experts and collectors with the highest standards, as well as all those interested in automobile aesthetics, technical sophistication, and art and culture.

The avant première and media presentation of the Grand Basel concept at Messe Basel in August featured renowned representatives of the world of automobile culture, including Giorgetto Giugiaro (Car Designer of the Century), Andrea Zagato and Rem D. Kolhaas. In the showcasing concept specially developed for Grand Basel, four exceptional designs were displayed, some of which have never been presented in public before.

The first Grand Basel is being held at Messe Basel from 3 to 9 September 2018. Further salons are planned for Miami Beach and Hong Kong.

Grand Basel