Hardware Retailing The Industry's Source for Insights and Information
As the world’s biggest garden lifestyle and barbecue trade fair, spoga+gafa serves as an international trade and networking platform for the green sector. Held in Cologne, Germany, from June 18-20, spoga+gafa 2023 brought in 30,000 trade visitors from 122 countries to discover a wide range of high-quality products and designs and learn more about the latest trends.
“We are delighted we were able to follow on from the fantastic results of the year 2019 with spoga+gafa 2023,” says Oliver Frese, chief operating officer of Koelnmesse GmbH. “The exhibitors and the international trade audience were above all extremely pleased with the quality of the discussions and the products. The fantastic atmosphere in the exhibition halls underlined this impressively. With a strong increase in the number of visitors from Germany, and at the same time around 70% of foreign trade visitors, spoga+gafa once again confirmed its relevance as the industry’s most important international trade and networking platform.”
Attendees browsed the 14 exhibit halls, which hosted 1,800 exhibitors from 58 countries, full of green innovations and new products, divided into four main areas: garden unique, garden creation and care, barbecue and outdoor living. They attended educational sessions in the Forum Garden Café. Live barbecue demonstrations provided an up-close look at the hottest grilling products and trends and the Boulevard of Ideas sparked inspiration and creativity.
“Even more exhibitors from the international grill and barbecue industry were represented at spoga+gafa 2023 than in the previous years,” says Norbert Jedrau, general manager of the Barbecue Industry Association Grill. “I am impressed by the high quality of the discussions and exchanges over the three days of the trade fair. Significantly more visitors were interested in new and traditional ways of preparing meat as well as in ways of cooking vegetables and other side dishes. The demand for grill accessories is very high.”
The theme for the event was “Social Gardens – Places of Encounter,” which was woven through all the sessions and present in the exhibit halls and special areas. The theme emphasized the idea of gardens being more than just a place to grow flowers, plants and food and serve as places where friends and family can gather. The gardens of the future are sustainable, promote social exchange and offer more potential than ever as extended living and working spaces.
Trend hunter Manuel Rucar gave valuable insights into the most important consumer trends for 2024 and in the TASPO Talk, barbecue professional Harry Soo shared best practices into “Creating a Community” through outdoor living.
Mark your calendars, as spoga+gafa 2024 will take place again in Cologne from June 16-20.
Lead image courtesy of: Koelnmesse / spoga+gafa / Trendshow Outdoor Lifestyle auf der spoga+gafa, Halle 10.2
