Event Support at Hannover Messe

A show to remember

K16 was tasked with staging three selected presentations from the Factory Automation division of Siemens AG at Hannover Messe 2019 as event highlights. Challenges included: an ambitious timeframe of six weeks until the trade fair, varying presentation skills among the speakers, and the need for integration into a conservative framework program that attracts too few visitors to the fair.

To sharpen the core messages, extensive product workshops were conducted with the client. The project included the development of the creative concept and storylines for three presentation topics, speaker trainings, and a communicative staging on social media.

How can we avoid the buzzword bingo and competition of superlatives at Hannover Messe? With the #noshow, we approach the topic with a wink and provocatively use hashtags like #nodigitization, #nobullshit, #nomoredata, and #nocloud in our communication.

Conceptually, we travel back to a time when digitization was still far off, linking historical figures like Henry Ford, the pioneer of serial fabrication; Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb; and Amelia Mary Earhart, the first female pilot to cross the Atlantic, with the product innovations of Siemens Factory Automation.

To attract visitors to the fair's product innovations, a social media campaign featuring teaser videos on LinkedIn was implemented alongside the stage show. In these videos, the stage show speakers appeared as testimonials. The recordings of the stage show on YouTube were among the most shared links of the Hannover Messe.

To maximize the impact of the stage show, we collaborated with our technology partner Cueconcept to develop a concept for media content delivery. The overall staging included films, motion graphics, sound effects, a lighting concept, and the active involvement of the audience through a Mentimeter poll. Highlights of the stage production included the speakers' interaction with a virtual voice assistant named "Sigrid," the appearance of hackers on stage, the accompaniment of a thunderstorm with moving lights and sound effects, and the simulation of a sudden power outage, where the entire display wall went dark and could only be reactivated with the help of Edison's inventive spirit.