Not with a bang but a whimper…
I’m pretty sure that T. S. Eliot wasn’t an audiophile, but anyone who was expecting the Munich Show to end on a high or represent some form of celebration, could do worse than read The Hollow Men. There were those who expected a party, but given the current economic situation, the Quixotic utterances emanating from the White House and wars in the Ukraine and the Middle East, that was always a triumph of blind optimism over reality. In practice, Munich 2025 was predictably flat, no party, more of a wake…
As a journalist, one of the repeat experiences at any show is, bumping into a fellow scribbler, the ritual question, “Seen/heard anything good?” This year, possibly for the first time ever, the answers were universally negative. It wasn’t that there weren’t good sounding rooms or interesting products, but the general air was so down-beat that there was simply no buzz in the corridors. The stories there were, tended to featured disasters and tragedies: more “Did you hear about…?” than “Did you hear…?” From collapsing companies and unexplained or unexpected absence, to friction between co-exhibitors or the explosive destruction of equipment, none of this was positive or encouraging, but it does represent a continuing trend. The sands are shifting and more than one big beast is up to its hips and sinking fast as newer, more agile competitors emerge to take its place. There are changes afoot when it comes to manufacturing, but there are even bigger shifts in distribution and the sales channel.
Against that backdrop, the High-End Society’s blithe complacency over the shifting of the show to Vienna isn’t striking the right note. Considerable numbers of exhibitors, big, small, foreign or local, expressed their doubts about the move, suggesting that they’d either down-size their attendance or skip the show altogether. Meanwhile, astonished to hear that anybody should have the slightest reservations, the organisers seem to have been drinking the Cool Aid rather than hearing the mood music. The final Munich Show closed its doors at 4:00pm on the Sunday. Boxes crates and cartons were already flowing forth from the lifts by 3:00pm. That’s not unusual, with many exhibitors wanting to get a jump on the lines in the lift lobbies that slow the breakdown to a halting snail’s pace. But this time around, it seemed somehow appropriate, the assembled masses starting to slip away, as quickly and quietly as possible, before the final bell had even wrung.
Munich represents big shoes to fill – whichever way you measure them. Who (or what) steps up remains to be seen, but it’s far from a foregone conclusion. The Vienna show may prove successful – or it may be overtaken by events or the competition. But one thing is for certain, Munich might not have been the recipient of any great affection, but few would deny its effectiveness. Whatever takes its place will be – and will need to be – very different indeed.
Trends And Tendencies
Most shows throw up emerging trends or attitudes and Munich 2025 was no exception. Sometimes those trends stick and become part of the landscape, sometimes they are transitory and fade from view…
