Baselworld lowered prices for some exhibitors this year and plans to retool its entire pricing structure for 2020, Managing Director Michel Loris-Melikoff said at the event’s opening press conference Wednesday the 20th in the evening in Switzerland.
It is one of several adjustments he’s made since taking the reins of the floundering watch and jewelry trade show just nine months ago, making it a priority to change the show’s “communication and management style” amid uncertainty about its future.
Sales of Swiss watches are strong—figures from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry presented Wednesday the 20th show exports rose 6 percent in value last year, led by sales of mechanical watches—but the show is struggling, losing exhibitors amid complaints of arrogant management and price gouging, and cries that traditional, business-to-business trade shows have become irrelevant and unnecessary.
When the show opens on the 21st in the small Swiss river city of Basel, it will have less than 600 exhibitors, down from nearly 1,500 just two years ago.
Loris-Melikoff said from the press conference stage Wednesday the 20th that Baselworld seems to have “reached the bottom” in terms of number of exhibitors, though he declined to provide a figure he sees as ideal.
“If we have 600 exhibitors who do their business well, then we can be satisfied,” he said.
What’s different so far
Like Baselworld itself, the opening press conference had a different look and feel this year.
It was done in a more informal, roundtable discussion-style on the show floor instead of in the adjacent Congress Center.
Noticeably absent were a few faces who had been regulars at the event in the past few years.
