Seoul Yonhap News reporter Choi Jae-seo reports Europe's largest consumer electronics and IT exhibition 'IFA 2020 Special Edition' opens in Berlin, Germany on the 3rd of September (KST time).
IFA is counted as one of the world's top three IT exhibitions along with CES in Las Vegas and MWC in Barcelona, Spain.
Although it is an event that attracts more than 100,000 visitors every year, the organizers has limited the number of visitors to 1,000 per day due to the spread of a novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) this year.
The event duration is also reduced from 6 days to 3 days, and the name 'Special Edition' is given to represent the 'On-Tact' (online plus non-face-to-face) exhibition.
"This IFA is a hybrid event," said Christian Goeke, CEO of Messe Berlin, an IFA organizer.
According to the organizers, this year over 1,450 companies from 30 countries applied for online and offline participation. Among them, 150 companies can be found on-site, and the rest of the companies can be met in the online space, Xtended Space.
In particular, the organizers stated that on the first day alone, about 3,000 people registered to join the Xtended Space.
The opening keynote speech on the first day is given by Qualcomm's President Cristiano Amon. Huawei and TCL also hold press conferences. As for Korean companies, LG Electronics [066570] and Hyundai Motors [005380] European subsidiaries are scheduled to appear at the global press conference.
In the Xtended Space, you can see online exhibitions of companies along with press conferences, and a networking channel has been established. "The IFA 2020 Special Edition will be able to deliver a strong signal to the world," said Gokeke. "Let's not let the pandemic stop us", he added.
Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics [005930], which participated on the largest scale every year, organized its own online event on the previous day to showcase its products in the European market.
