Interview with Sebastian Rosito, Vice President Trade Fair Management, and Claudia Maurer, Director of spoga+gafa, about the results of the early bird phase and the plans for spoga+gafa 2025.
After spoga+gafa confirmed its position as the most important platform for the global garden industry in 2024, the trade fair has recorded a strong result at the end of the early bird phase. Mr Rosito, Mrs Maurer, could you tell us about the current demand and interest in spoga+gafa 2025?
Sebastian Rosito: The outstanding result of spoga+gafa 2024 with around 28,000 trade visitors from 113 countries has provided us with added momentum and led to a very successful early bird phase for spoga+gafa 2025. We are pleased to report that around 85 percent of the exhibition space from 2024 has already been booked, so that the halls are now already pretty full. The strong demand in all of our segments as well as from Europe is particularly pleasing. We can quite confidently say that once again next year spoga+gafa will be representative for the entire garden and BBQ world in a range and depth that will reinforce its position as the leading trade fair.
Claudia Maurer: In addition to this the new schedule is also going down extremely well on the market. The exhibitors and associations are reporting that staging the trade fair from Tuesday to Thursday allows a more efficient preparation and at the same time could attract more visitors to spoga+gafa. Initial feedback from all over Europe confirms that the new schedule will facilitate the trade fair visit for employees - an advantage that is often not the case at weekends.
The new top theme is Design Gardens. This can be interpreted in two ways: as an invitation to design gardens and as an emphasis of garden products as design objects.
Sebastian Rosito: That's right. With its new top theme, spoga+gafa is placing the focus on both the design of gardens as an overall concept as well as on the design of individual garden BBQ products. This not only entails the planning and creation of outdoor areas, but also the design and function of individual products: from functionality and efficiency, to comfort, aesthetics and quality, through to innovations, smart technologies and the responsibility towards users and the environment.
Let's be a little more specific: Could you give us an insight into what you are working on at the moment? Are there any new formats, for instance?
Claudia Maurer: We will be sticking to the trusted hall concept for the coming event too. At the same time, we will rely on optimised stand construction formats to further enhance the attractiveness of spoga+gafa. Among others, we are planning to further expand the Outdoor Adventure section. A newly introduced format will be the Start-up Square, which offers young companies their own section where they can present their innovative products and services. Thanks to a new design, the Cooling World that was introduced in 2024 will set even stronger accents and the Outdoor Kitchen World will continue to be a key element. Furthermore, we are planning to rearrange the special zones in the garden unique and garden living segments to offer the trade visitors an even higher quality and more inspiring trade fair experience.
