Special fund: federal and state governments support restart of trade fairs

With a special fund, the Federal Government and the Länder insure the preparation costs of fairs and exhibitions against the risk of a Corona-related event cancellation. This is intended to provide incentives for the planning and implementation of trade fairs and exhibitions. 

Similar to an insurance policy, this programme insures the planning and preparation costs of trade fairs and exhibitions against the risk of a complete shutdown of operations due to pandemic-related restrictions. According to the Federal Ministry of Economics, corresponding insurance solutions for pandemic risks are currently not offered on the market. Organising companies are therefore affected by an enormous cost risk due to the long preparation time and high investments.

For the cancellation insurance, the State of Hamburg provides an IT platform for all federal states, through which both the application and the approval on the part of the states can be processed. According to the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, the programme can cover event-related costs totalling up to 600 million euros. Fairs or exhibitions that are scheduled to take place until 30 September 2022 can be taken into account. The events must be registered in advance on the central IT platform www.sonderfonds-messe.de 

Supplementing the safeguarding programme, the Federal Government is also supporting the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in selected leading trade fairs in Germany for a limited period of time. For this purpose, funding totalling up to 20 million euros is to be made available as part of an expanded exhibitor promotion programme. The list of eligible trade fairs for 2022 will also be available there shortly.