Economic

The strategy process has not yet been finalised in all areas. In August/September 2019, the Board of Directors took key decisions, however.

State-of-the-art experience platforms are hybrid formats with digital planes that supplement the physical events and extend beyond these in terms of time and content. The aim of the MCH Group is to build up communities in this way, create unique values for them and generate clear added value for customers from this. Two examples:

The three Art Basel shows in Basel, Miami Beach and Hong Kong are the most important live events in the arts sector and already have a very strong community. More than three million people are linked to Art Basel via social media. This community is to be further expanded and, in particular, maintained throughout the year by means of additional digital services. In 2019, the new “Global Guide” was introduced with information on more than 500 galleries in 130 cities worldwide. In the current financial year, online viewing rooms are being offered for the first time. These new online platforms are “open” in parallel to the shows and enable Art Basel exhibitors to present works to the public that are not on display at the show and offer them for sale.

Swissbau already comprises the three vehicles of an exhibition (exhibitors and their products and services), Swissbau Focus (event and network platform) and Swissbau Innovation Lab (special show for digital transformation). Here, additional physical and digital platforms are to be set up on the basis of our strong Swissbau and a national “building industry community” created in this way.

In the experience marketing industry, the organisers and operators of the physical and digital platforms are positioned at the start of the value chain. For their platforms, they need the appropriate infrastructure and systems as well as further services that can be designated “live marketing solutions". The suppliers of these marketing solutions, however, not only provide their services to the organisers and operators of the platforms but, above all, to the individual actors involved, for example, to the exhibitors at fairs or sponsors at sporting events.

Within this value chain, the MCH Group provides a broad range of services, which can, however, differ greatly from case to case. These divide up into three areas:

These fields are mutually conducive. They are not dependent on each other, however, and can also function independently.

In cases where the MCH Group itself acts as a service provider, the extent to which it makes use of the supplier groups can also vary greatly. In the “Venues” field, for example, the range of services provided by the MCH Group is concentrated primarily on facility management, with the facility services generally being provided by regional suppliers.

Exhibitions, congresses and events generate a major direct and indirect economic benefit. A number of studies on the economic impact of exhibitions show that exhibition companies produce indirect returns that are eight to ten times greater than their own turnover. Only 20 to 25% of the expenditure incurred by an exhibiting company when it participates in an exhibition goes into the exhibition organiser’s coffers. Some 75 to 80% of expenditure goes to different suppliers and service providers.

If the results of these studies are extrapolated to the current figures of the MCH Group, then the following estimates can be derived: exhibitors and visitors together spend some CHF 2.5 billion each year for their participation in an MCH event, with CHF 1.5 billion of this being spent in Switzerland. This expenditure goes to the construction and ancillary industries (20%), the hospitality industry (30%), public transport operators (16%), the retail trade (6%) and different service providers (28%). In Switzerland, these initial effects trigger overall sales of some CHF 5 billion as direct and indirect follow-on effects. The associated added value corresponds to around 25,000 jobs and tax income of some CHF 400 million for the confederation, cantons and communes.

There are also other effects that cannot be expressed in figures – in particular, the positive impact of successful marketing platforms for the corresponding industries and companies.

At the locations at which live events are staged, they frequently have a "lighthouse effect" for tourism through their reach and appeal, which are transmitted to the city or country in question. The Basel region, for instance, benefits from the fact that the globally leading events of Baselworld, Art Basel in Basel, Art Basel in Miami Beach and Art Basel in Hong Kong carry the name of their "home city" throughout the world.