After legal and political upheaval forced its postponement last year, the major German show IMA is set to return in January, writes David Snook.
THE excitement at Völklinger Strasse, where the Reed Deutschland offices are situated in Düsseldorf, is almost palpable. They are a couple of months away from their first IMA trade show in two years.
The gap, caused by the industry’s decision not to run a show in 2013 in response to a raft of proposed new laws from an increasingly aggressive union of Germany’s 16 Länder, or provinces, was an agonising one for show director Petra Lassahn and her team at Reed.
“It seems a lifetime since the 2012 IMA show,” said Petra, “and we had built it up to a very strong position as a leading European gaming machine event.” That momentum will be continued in January (14-17) and an enthusiastic team at the Reed HQ now reports a show virtually full, taking up two halls at the Düsseldorf Exhibition Centre.
IMA will be dominated by the big German AWP suppliers, the Gauselmann Group, Löwen, Crown and Bally Wulff, as it usually is, but there is evidence of slight changes in accent, in face of the political pressures on the industry in Germany. With the Länder running a countdown to massive changes in the way arcades operate, the big German suppliers are looking outside of their own territory for some insurance.
That may well prove something of a theme of the show. The promotion of non-German products, aimed at AWP-using territories elsewhere will surely bring an influx of foreign visitors. IMA is already a powerful force in central Europe, attracting hundreds of visitors from neighbouring countries such as Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Bulgaria and Italy.
Read the full article in the December issue of InterGame.
