Until spring 2020 the trade fair sector was still boasting: “You can’t email a handshake!” Then corona came along and everything was turned upside down: exhibitions were postponed, cancelled or relocated into digital space. It also brought forth new concepts with which we had not reckoned a couple of years ago: virtual twins, AR or VR walk-through stands, online exhibitions with new meeting formats, or quite different ideas that are currently turning the sector upside down, providing new impetuses and making the trade fair a place as we have never known it before. The new trade fair yearbook presents not only the most exciting exhibition settings of the previous year but also entices us into virtual space.

Sabine Marinescu and Janina Poesch are both architects, journalists and founders of PLOT – the network in the area of spatial installations. Since 2008 they have been publishing print and online magazines as well as reference books in the wide field of scenography.