CG Lounge Talk at the PSI trade fair

Cybergroup be starting the new year by once again presenting its own lounge at the PSI, on 7 January. As in previous years, the marketing team will be interviewing partner suppliers about new innovations and trends. But as well as all this, the popular CG Lounge Talk forms an essential component. An edition directly from the most important trade fair in the industry therefore provides the format with a new dimension, ringing in the next round for the new year.

The trade fair year in Germany traditionally starts with the PSI, Europe’s largest trade fair for promotional items. It is therefore a yardstick for the sector and the start of the new financial year. 2020 is an especially important year for the network, as the PSI, Europe’s leading industry network, into which more than 6,500 suppliers and promotional items dealers are organised, celebrates its birthday.

It is now 60 years since the still-unforgettable Walter Jung initially founded the PSI network in 1960, before organising the first PSI trade fair two years later. In doing so, he laid the foundations for the successful model that would today be called a business hub and sector portal.  

60 years of the PSI network, and meanwhile almost 12 years under the overall leadership of Michael Freter. For the managing director, this is a reason for celebration, but also an occasion for reflection. In the Lounge Talk, the two industry experts will be discussing developments in the sector and the role of the association.

When you imagine how everything began back in 1960, and how, at the first PSI trade fair two years later, the promotional items were presented on pasting tables, how the association developed to become what it is today is almost unbelievable. Europe’s largest and most important event for the promotional items business developed from PSI father Walter Jung’s idea for a network whose aim was to provide the community, which was scattered all over Europe, with a face and an industry platform.

For three days, the PSI will become the nucleus of the industry and the innovation centre for the promotional items business. More than 500,000 products will be on show at this year’s PSI. A degree of market transparency that sets worldwide standards. The sales revenue generated during these three days is of national economic importance, reaching the billions.

More than 500 CEOs, associations and service providers will be available for discussions. One focus will be the membership lounge, which is only accessible to PSI members. Added to this is the impact PSI members enjoy the whole year round as a result of digital services, such as for example the product finder. Every year, the PSI sourcing division alone receives more than 75,000 product enquiries relating to dealers for promotional products. An unbelievable figure, backed up by concrete orders.

In this respect, the PSI is also unique in the trade fair business. It is that which many trade fair organisers dream of in vain – a real business portal, 365 days a year. This leads to the clear prognosis that the PSI, as a network and also as Europe’s leading trade fair, is perfectly positioned for the future. At the moment, parts of the trade fair business are also characterised by disruption. Everyone in the industry surely has the current examples in mind. On the other hand, the PSI is now 60. But there are no signs yet of early retirement.

And in relation to the European market, the PSI, in partnership with individual national associations and market-leading businesses, has surveyed the world of promotional items. In today’s era of digital reproducibility and arbitrariness, people are looking for brand experiences that are real and multi-sensory. A megatrend which naturally also has positive effects on the entire industry. In Europe alone, €14.9bn in revenue is generated from the sale of promotional items. That is the finding of the Industry Structure Analysis 2017–2019, the first empirical study of the European promotional products business, which was created in cooperation with the PSI and supported by a total of 13 partners and associations. In Germany alone, revenue of €3.58bn was recorded. This represents almost a quarter of the European market, with the UK, France and Italy following behind.

The topic of sustainability not only plays a central role for the PromoTex Expo and viscom, but also for the PSI. Sustainability is the focus of all three events. And the PSI plays a pioneering role. For five years now, the association has been distinguishing products and corporate CSR sustainability concepts with the ‘PSI Sustainability Awards’. At the beginning, the association still had to battle countervailing forces, as there were critical voices who were of the opinion that the topic was irrelevant for the promotional items industry.

In the meantime, however, the subject has become a megatopic in the promotional items sector, because the sensitivities of the people who bring items to the market, along with those of consumers, have grown. The risk that products produced or traded under unfair conditions could possibly trigger a firestorm has increased considerably. With the Sustainable League, the industry demonstrates its comprehensive range of sustainable concepts.

Source:  PSI/Reed Exhibitions Deutschland GmbH