Exhibition
SMM 2024
SMM – “the United Nations of Shipbuilding” – Returns to Hamburg in 2024
Later this year, arguably the world’s best maritime exhibition again opens in Hamburg, the SMM 2024 with more than 2,000 exhibitors from 60 nations filling 11 exhibition halls comprising 90,000 sq. m. of exhibition space. We recently checked in with Uli Selbach, Business Unit Director, Maritime Fairs, Hamburg Messe, for an update on what to look for in 2024.
By Greg Trauthwein
In the wake of the global pandemic and the washout of exhibitions and conferences in 2020/21, the global maritime exhibition and conference scene looks a lot different than it did before 2020, as many shows have returned as a shadow of their former selves.
Not the SMM in Hamburg though, which returns to the Hamburg Messe from September 3-6, 2024, with the expectation it will be as strong as ever.
“SMM is back on track after the pandemic and we are technically sold out now,” said Uli Selbach, Business Unit Director, Maritime Fairs, Hamburg Messe. While the SMM was a live event in 2022, it was on the tail end of the pandemic and notably China was absent. Not so in ’24 said Selbach, noting that “China will be back in big time.”
In total team SMM anticipates more than 40,000 attendees from more than 100 nations.
Leaping the Covid Hump
Like any exhibition managers, Selbach and his team were challenged first by the cancellation of the 2020 live event, then again in 2022 with many Covid restrictions still in place. But following two years of near lock down, highlighted by endless video calls and meetings, there is a palpable need to reconnect in a live, collaborative environment. But that’s not to say that nothing has changed for the in-person events.
“One thing I would say is that not every company is sending 10 people to the event, but maybe six,” said Selbach, “so we see a reduction there.” But he notes that those who do attend, if planned efficiently, can eliminate a much larger volume of one-on-one business travel that would be required to knock off that volume of meetings, not to mention the chance meetings that inevitably take place. “If you prepare those four days [of SMM] in a good way, you are going to avoid four months of business travel.”
That said, when SMM convenes in Hamburg in September 2024, the world is a significantly changed place, punctuated by numerous geopolitical conflicts. Selbach sees SMM as a means to bring those with political differences together under the common banner of business. “SMM is like the United Nations of shipbuilding; 120 nations that come there to do business together,” said Selbach. “For me, SMM is always positive. We will have exhibitors from Israel, the Emirates, from China, and Taiwan. On the other hand, we are quite clear, Russia is on the sanctions list, so we are not allowing any Russian exhibitors to participate at SMM.”
In a maritime context, the multiple global conflicts means bigger budgets and new, vigorous investment in coasts guards and navies, and while SMM is not a naval show per se, security and defense inevitably help to shape its conference agenda, exhibitions and attendees.
What’s New in 2024?
Neither Selbach or the SMM team rest on its laurels of success year’s past. “To remain number one we always have to work on new topics; we try to be half-step in front of the industry. So this year we're going to have an artificial intelligence center, talking about AI in the maritime industry with start-ups and established companies.
We’re also going to have a hydrogen hub,” which plays into the dynamic and ongoing energy transition in maritime. Finally, as the entire business world seemingly is on the hunt for qualified technical talent, SMM 2024 will double its recruiting event to two days “to attract more young people, students, or people who work in different industries to seek a job or find a job in the maritime industries. We see SMM as a platform, it's our duty to make the maritime industry even more attractive; it's to ‘Make The Maritime Industry Sexy Again.’”
