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IDS 2021 attracted 23,000 visitors from 114 countries

Despite travel restrictions, 57% of the visitors to IDS 2021 came from abroad. (Image: Koelnmesse/IDS/Harald Fleissner)

COLOGNE, Germany: From 22 to 25 September, the 2021 International Dental Show (IDS), held six months later than usual owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, offered the dental industry and dental professionals the opportunity to experience products live and, above all, to socialise with one another in person. This IDS was the first to be held in a hybrid format, so that visitors who were unable to travel owing to restrictions were still able to participate digitally.

A total of 830 companies from 59 countries participated in IDS 2021 in a gross exhibition space of 115,000 m². There were 228 exhibitors and five additionally represented companies from Germany together with 591 exhibitors and six additionally represented companies from abroad. The foreign share of company participation was 72%. Including estimates for the last day of the fair, more than 23,000 trade show visitors from 114 countries attended IDS 2021. Of these visitors, around 57% came from abroad—from Europe, especially Italy, France, the Netherlands and Eastern Europe, as well as from the Middle East and overseas.

IDSconnect, the digital platform of the fair, featured 77 exhibitors from 16 countries with 88 daily contributions and 1,310 minutes of broadcast time. Oliver Frese, chief operating officer of Koelnmesse, commented on the hybrid format in a press release: “We offered the physical meeting place here in Cologne in the exhibition halls and, in addition, the digital platform IDSconnect with added opportunities for presentations and networking, which was very well received.”

“Optimism has returned within the international dental family. We held intensive discussions with interested visitors and most of them ultimately came to make investment decisions,” said Mark Stephen Pace, chairman of the executive board of the Association of the German Dental Industry.

Heikki Kyöstilä, president of Planmeca, commented: “IDS 2021—a feeling almost as normal. In my view, IDS has been going on surprisingly well—about the same as normal. September as the new date for the fair has turned out to be the best choice. Friends and customers were coming up to say hello or to decide and buy their new equipment. There were not as many visitors as in 2017 or 2019, and even for the future, I expect the IDS to be a bit smaller than in the past. But we will still initiate and maintain a lot of communication here in Cologne—which is the fuel for innovation and success.”

The next IDS will take place from 14 to 18 March 2023.

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