The Top Trade Shows Taking Place at Frankfurt Messe in 2023

Messe Frankfurt ranks as one of the top venues organising trade shows in the world. The events that take place here are impressive in scale, regularly bringing tens of thousands of professionals from around the world.

We’ve curated the best of the best trade shows you can expect to run during the 2023 season in chronological order.

Heimtextil, January 10th – 13th

In 2023, Heimtextil is one of the first major trade fairs to take place at Messe Frankfurt. You can expect over 2300 exhibitors and 63,000 trade visitors to fill the halls, and mark a good start to the calendar year. Events held at Messe Frankfurt are truly global in every sense and this is best seen in the number of countries taking part in Heimtextil – 109 countries.

Heimtextil platforms manufacturers of home textiles, decoration fabrics and furniture fabrics. The trade fair excels as a B2B platform and ranks as the go-to place for buyers to make their purchases. Heimtextil is the barometer of trends and pioneers new fabric production technologies. Learn from renowned experts about market trends and consumer needs at the Heimtextil Conference.

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Ambiente Germany, February 3-7

Ambiente Germany is one of the longest-running trade shows for the decoration, consumer goods and arts and crafts. The very first edition was held in 1949 and has since become the go-to place for companies to showcase their newest products and end consumers to get up close and personal with current trends. It’s no surprise to learn then that more than 101,000 visitors attend Ambiente Germany on average.

This is more than incentive enough for the 4500 exhibitors to rent a booth in the four categories of products – art printing, giving, living and working. The support programme is packed with top events like the Future of Work, Ambiente Academy and Stars on Stage. Ambiente Germany also runs alongside Creativeworld and Christmasworld.

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Creativeworld, February 3-7

Complementing the product assortment at Ambiente Germany is Creativeworld, which is the top trade fair for hobbies, handicrafts and arts and crafts products. Buyers from 120 countries agree. As a specialised event, Creativeworld is smaller in scale. You exhibit side by side 368 exhibitors and present products to over 9200 trade visitors. The trade fair is geared towards cross-border procurement for senior buyers, so live product demonstrations and practical workshops are at the core of the trade fair.

Perhaps the biggest highlight here is the Creativeworld Trends area that guides manufacturer and buyer decisions.

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Christmasworld, February 3-7

The final member of the trio, Christmasworld, targets the specific Christmas decoration market as well as the broader holiday decoration sector. The trade fair builds on top of classic decorations and candles to electronics and modern gadgets. If you want to know what Christmas in 2023 will look like, you find your answers here as over 1000 exhibitors hurry to release new products and new designs.

Over 43,000 trade visitors explore emerging trends and sit through live demonstrations. The big programme ticket is the Conzoom Solutions Academy. This lineup of lectures outlines how consumer habits have changed due to the pandemic, what’s staying, what’s going to change and how you can best weather these turbulent times.

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ISH, March 13-17

The HVAC industry in Germany and abroad meet together at ISH. It’s in the running for the largest trade show in this sector. Over 2500 international exhibitors and 188,000 visitors are more than enough proof. Plus, visitor numbers keep on growing. Now that the trade show will be held live for the first time since the pandemic, the anticipation is quite high. ISH offers exciting solutions for eco-friendly water and energy use.

ISH regularly highlights newcomers with visions for the future at the Startup@ISH. Most recently, the trade show also debuted the Fire & Flame platform, which is a forum designated for the stove industry. The first edition focused mainly on strategies to reduce CO2 emissions.

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Prolight + Sound, April 25-28

Prolight + Sound delivers cutting-edge technology from stage effects to sound and lighting to an eager crowd, representing the entire entertainment sector (live or otherwise). The return from the pandemic left something to be desired as the edition pulled over 19,000 trade visitors, who came to browse offerings from 391 exhibitors. These numbers are expected to rise for Prolight + Sound 2022. What hasn’t changed is the level of internationality – 93 countries in total.

The product portfolio is quite exhaustive and covers stage lighting, effects, fixed installations, mobile sound system, object creation, show lighting, microphones, media technology, theatre lighting, truss systems, studio lighting, studio technology, live sound and communications.

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IMEX, May 23-25

IMEX provides a much needed B2B platform for the exhibition and convention industry. The international trade fair breaks down trends, innovations and practical solutions for challenges that arise during the planning stages. The specialised event covers every possible area of interest from car hire and event management to presentation equipment and catering services. It’s why over 9000 professionals chose to attend every year in May.

Although smaller in scale, IMEX still maintains a high level of internationality with 160 countries represented each year. Trade visitors have another reason to attend outside B2B networking – the superior information programme. You have more than 250 educational sessions spread over four forums - She Means Business, Agency Directors Forum, Association Focus and Exclusively Corporate.

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EUROBIKE, June 21-25

EUROBIKE has recently moved to Messe Frankfurt after having its start in Friedrichshafen. The international trade fair for bike culture and cycling saw an incredible boom in numbers in 2021 with over 1400 exhibitors and more than 37,000 international visitors. The event has a solid international pool as 96 different countries are represented in total. EUROBIKE started as a fair for bikes, gear and equipment, but now has moved towards urban mobility as bikes are seen as a much more favourable alternative to cars.

Micromobility is the hottest new trend, which is why a lot of space is dedicated to e-bikes and other electrically assisted small vehicles such as e-scooters and sharing services.

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Frankfurt Book Fair, October 18-22

The Frankfurt Book Fair ranks as the largest book fair in the world, and it’s been influential in the buying of rights and translations for thousands of books each year. What does an edition of the fair look like? On average, there are 2000 exhibitors and 73,000 visitors (almost half are employed in the publishing world).

Organisers pack an incredible amount of events during these five days – more than 4000 individual events in total. Whatever part of the publishing industry you work in, there’s an event for you! The Frankfurt Book Fair is the best platform to meet with illustrators, publishers, translators and agents. Every year a new country is chosen as the Guest of Honour and gets the royal treatment with its own special pavilion and author invitations.