Next year, don't miss Medica, an international show like no other - News

Healthcare Purchasing News, Jan, 2004 by Curt Werner

Medical trade show visitors who think they have seen everything haven't seen it all they travel to Dusseldorf, Germany for the show somewhat grandiosely known as Medica. Not only are the sheer statistics that track the numbers of visitors, exhibitors and exhibit space truly mind-blowing, but the cultural differences between North American medical shows and the European version are equally astonishing and make for a fun, thoroughly interesting event.

This HPN editor flew to Germany just before Thanksgiving and spent a few days browsing the aisles before exhaustion set in and forced a retreat to the beer gardens and restaurants of this sleek, ancient, captivating city on the Rhine.

To provide a reference point, take a look at how the figures stack up against any North American medical trade event. This year's show, like most of its 34 Medica predecessors, drew more than 130,000 visitors dining its four-day run (Nov. 19-22). Completely absent is any semblance of a formal registration process as Americans know it, which some might argue presents a bit of security dilemma. But written registration materials for an international show of this magnitude would necessitate the creation of forms in dozens of languages and the hiring of linguists to construct the forms and fine-tune them to cross cultural lines, a costly and difficult proposition that could bring minimal returns (with the possible exception of an extremely valuable mailing list). Instead, the turnstiles swing open after paying a small (15 [euro]) ticket charge.

Once inside, it's clear that the volume of booths on the exhibit floor in Hall 1, for example, doesn't differ much from any large medical trade show in any U.S. city with one exception: There are 16 other halls at Medica equally as large and each is filled to capacity in what has been a complete sell-out. Show officials say there are approximately 3 million square feet of exhibit space at Medica in the outwardly undistinguished sprawl of buildings (plus construction on a new one) that are actually owned and operated by Messe Dusseldorf (Dusseldorf Exhibits), the private firm that handles bookings for numerous events staged throughout the year in the vast fairgrounds and elsewhere. Other Medica shows are held worldwide, including an upcoming show in China that was scheduled for 2002 but postponed due to the SARS epidemic. All told, there were 3,906 exhibiting companies at this year's show (almost 7 percent more than at Medica 2002) supported by about 25,000 personnel. Approximately 38 percent of visitors come from 100 nations outside of Germany, making this truly an international event.

But while the numbers are liar higher than any U.S. medical trade show, even more impressive are the cultural business differences. For one thing, the wide-eyed American editor had his eyes clouded by enormous clouds of cigarette smoke that permeated the halls. "Smoking is a right, not a privilege," say the Germans, and it's hard to argue that point. One might think that a quick check of lung cancer rates might deter the perpetual puffers. But the statistics do not bear out what should lead to a line at the oncology centers: In 1990, the annual lung cancer rate among German women was only 8 per 100,000 (for German men it was 49 per 100,000 and for American men it was 75 per 100,000). The rate for American women is actually four times higher than the rate for German women. How Germans get away with it is anyone's guess, but this nonsmoking editor shuddered to think about the effects of secondhand smoke and its accompanying statistics.

If smoking isn't your way of relaxing while doing business at a trade show, perhaps it's a nice cool glass of beer that will inspire you to discuss that next contract for urological catheters. Unending supplies of good German suds (known locally as alt) and wines were on hand to quench the thirst of attendees during what has to be called the festivities or die festlichkeiten.

That said, the smoking and drinking appeared to be far from an orgy of excess and business seemed to proceed normally. Indeed, while Americans often resort to handouts consisting of pens and pads, the Europeans (and many Asians) have kicked it up a notch and made their booths so inviting that materials managers and other purchasing personnel are known to spend hours, even entire days, at a single booth at Medica, conducting business and just hanging out with the herrs and fraus. So it was not surprising that the traffic in each of the enormous halls was more than brisk.

Many of the booths were quite large and, in many cases, opulent. This was particularly true of some of the radiology suppliers, and with the Radiological Society of North America show scheduled for Chicago a week after Medica one had to wonder about the size of trade show budgets for these manufacturers. But just as it is even in the smallest of trade shows, scaling down is perceived as weakness, so the show must go on.

At an event where hospitality counts for a lot, several exhibitors should be singled out for shows of hospitality that were above the crowd, including precision instrument maker Aesculap/B.Braun; venerable microscope producer Carl Zeiss; Hartmann AG, a wound care products maker that like many is big in Europe but little known in the U.S.; Protec, a small German-based company that calls itself Germany's largest film-independent manufacturer of automatic X-ray film processors and accessories, and Erbe, a German-based manufacturer of premium electrosurgery equipment that like Hartmann is seeking to increase North American market share.