By MKPE ABANG
Deutsche Messe, the Hannover, Germany-based trade fair operator, has announced a buyout of three digital events in Australia and New Zealand from Australian event organiser, The Eventful Group.
A statement by Deutsche Messe spokeswoman, Gabriele Dörries, listed the events as the HR Innovation & Tech Fest and the Legal Innovation & Tech Fest, both based in Sydney, Australia, as well as the HR Innovation & Tech Fest based in Auckland, New Zealand.
The target-group-specific events are specially designed to meet the needs of human resources specialists or lawyers using technology as launch pad.
“These three Tech Fest events represent the clear market leaders in digitisation issues in human resources and legal sector, presenting the latest solutions,” said Dr. Andreas Gruchow, member of the Deutsche Messe Managing Board.
“We see great potential in these events, which have developed extremely positively over the past editions. We are delighted that we can now contribute our expertise and worldwide network of contacts to the reinforcement and further expansion of these up-to-the-minute event formats.”
The three Tech Fest events are staged annually, lasting two days each and consisting of a conference plus exhibition and sponsors area. A special feature of the tech festival series revolves around the way the events are conceptualised and built.
To ensure the most relevant tech festival for each respective target groups, the organisers host roundtables with potential attendees throughout the year. Through this direct engagement they shape the event curating both the conference program and the display area for the events sponsors. This approach is highly valued by those within the industry ensuring each event is explicitly geared to the needs of participants.
Hannover Fairs Australia (HFA), the Australian subsidiary of Deutsche Messe, has been taxed with organising the events:
“These events are built to deliver great learning and networking outcomes for specific groups of industry-based technology users, suppliers and innovators,” explains Tim Bostridge, Managing Director of HFA.
“The team that has built these events have embedded themselves within each industry sector and achieved fantastic engagement to ensure that the content delivered both within the conference program and the display exhibition is up to the minute. We are delighted to welcome them into our business and to help grow the Tech Fest events which are superbly positioned in the market.”
Australia is the fifth largest economy in the Asia-Pacific region and, like New Zealand, has a high affinity for IT – not least owing to geographical factors. Along with a dynamic raw materials industry, Australia’s service sector continues to grow – especially in greater Sydney.
The first event in the extended Deutsche Messe portfolio consists of the HR Innovation & Tech Fest (HRAU) on Monday, 18, and Tuesday, 19 November 2019 at the International Convention Centre in Sydney.
First staged in 2014, HRAU is aimed at HR managers from a broad range of industries as well as at service providers and recruiting agencies. Attendees are involved in finance, business, manufacturing, logistics, healthcare and government administration.
Topics include HR development, recruitment, accounting systems and inclusion. Exhibitors, sponsors and speakers at the event primarily consist of service providers and providers of software solutions for the HR sector as a whole.
In April 2020, the Legal Innovation & Tech Fest (LTF), in existence since 2016, then takes place in Sydney. LTF is targeted at lawyers and employees in legally relevant spheres at companies, law firms and training and education providers, with freelancers making up the remaining target audience.
The event’s exhibitors, sponsors and speakers are composed primarily of providers of special software solutions for law firms, cloud systems and security solutions. LTF is the leading event of its kind in Australia and New Zealand.
The third event consists of the HR Innovation & Tech Fest New Zealand (HRNZ) in Auckland. This event made its debut last year and will be held for the first time in summer 2020 under the management of Deutsche Messe. Similar to the HR Innovation & Tech Fest in Australia, HRNZ is aimed at HR managers from a range of industries as well as at service providers and recruiting agencies. Exhibitors consist of service providers and HR software providers.
Deutsche Mess, established in 1947, has been staging leading events and services in several sectors, since then, with IT, automation and industrialisation at the heart of most programmes, bringing together exhibitors and visitors. The company’s expertise is as diverse with portfolio trade fairs for capital goods, human resource management as well as consumer goods, with a passion to helping business.