…signalling start of Christmas shopping
By MKPE ABANG
Although the event is generally known as IFA Berlin, and holds in the German capital since its debut in 1924, IFA 2018 takes off from Rome, the Italian capital from April 19 in spectacular fashion only this show is reputed for. Rome has rich history that dates back over 28 centuries!
IFA is the best platform to showcase and source consumer electronics and home appliances; it is where manufacturers – from all over the world – fight for space to exhibit their latest and best innovations. The manufactures not only seek to make great sales, but to make history, which only IFA offers the most promising potential.
And, as it holds usually just at the onset of the most appropriate shopping time for Christmas – at the beginning of September – IFA presents visitors a most auspicious opportunity to make the most of Christmas shopping experience.
IFA, one of the oldest industrial exhibitions in Germany, continuously breaks new grounds and sets historic landmarks.
In 1930, Albert Einstein, yes, the very well-known German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum mechanics) personally opened IFA of that year.
After running as an annual event from 1924 to 1939, and from 1950 organised on a two-yearly basis, IFA was rebranded and repackaged with a whole new focus from 2005; and, since then has become again an annual event. And, with the new focus as ‘Official Partner of the Future’, IFA has become more than just a show for consumer electronics and home appliances: it is a festival of sorts.
As the ultimate platform for brands, markets and innovation, IFA, which has become the world’s most important technology marketplace, is always fully booked well ahead of its advertised dates! This underscores both its importance and the critical role IFA Berlin has been playing in the lifestyles and production decisions for the consumer electronics and house appliances sector.
The Rome Connection
So, why is IFA 2018 taking off in Rome not Berlin? After all, Rome is the capital of Italy! Yes, true to its archetypical role as the event that opens new vistas and creates history time and time again, IFA 2018 is taking off in Rome, April 19 to 22, with its vintage Global Press Conference, a gathering of technology journalists, market analysts, the IFA organisers and some selected manufacturers to give a peek preview of what to expect at the event proper in Berlin.
The IFA Global Press Conference is a unique creation that is only naturally a design of the IFA Berlin and its organisers, gfu, the corporation supporting the consumer electronics in Germany and founded in 1973 by the eleven leading consumer electronics companies, along with Messe Berlin, which organises IFA.
The IFA Global Press Conference is so unique that year after year, for overt a decade now, tech journalists, numbering nearly 300 from all regions of the world, are brought together – not in Germany, as might be expected, but – in one special city or another outside of Germany, to launch the take-off of the event for that year. The diversity of those attending, the spread of information on products to look for, the channels on which the IFA event’s messages will pour to the world can best be imagined!
And, for IFA 2018, the take-off point is Rome, where the IFA Global Press Conference holds from April 19-22, signalling the countdown to the opening of the event in Berlin on August 31; IFA 2018 will run till September 5.
Rome itself rings loud bells of history, of uniqueness and of conquests – and much more. It is a city never short of discoveries and stories – told and untold. And, if IFA is known as Official Partner of the Future, then Rome may well be regarded as having the inalienable right to a handshake and connection with rich histories of the past.
For instance, during IFA in Berlin from August 31 to September 5, it will be more than just exhibition and seeing consumer electronics and home appliances. While the event is replete with forums and stages to discuss new ways, innovations and fashions for what will influence the next waves of products and services in the consumer electronics and home appliances, there is more than ample room for entertainment.
Did you know, for instance, that the phenomenal James Blunt has been confirmed for the IFA-Concerts under the Funkturm 2018? That is a hidden secret that you’re now lucky to have knowledge into.
But that is the nature of IFA: always breaking new grounds, with events, forums, new products, innovations, and now music at the highest and level of quality, satisfaction and decibel.