Intertabac replacement canceled as well. Instead of the annual Intertabac and Intersupply trade show, Westfalenhallen created the ITShub. That would be a hybrid between an online event and the regular tradeshow. But that plan is off the table now as well. Due to the flare-ups of covid-19 cases worldwide, the event is canceled. Below is the statement from the fair organizers.

the statement

ITShub, the hybrid event announced during the Corona pandemic and planned to be held on 3 and 4 November 2020 at Dortmund Exhibition Centre, will now not be taking place. In view of the worldwide rise in SARS-COV2 infections over recent weeks, the fair organizers have decided to act quickly and cancel the event planned for the beginning of November. “The way infections have been trending over the last few weeks has unfortunately made our plans for this successful ITShub pilot considerably more difficult to achieve,” said Sabine Loos, Managing Director of Westfalenhallen Unternehmensgruppe GmbH.

Dortmund (ll) – Following the announcement, in May, of an innovative hybrid event as an interactive platform to complement the postponed InterTabac and InterSupply trade fairs, Dortmund Exhibition Centre has decided to cancel ITShub this year. This means that there will be no platform for the tobacco and smoking industry to convene at Dortmund Exhibition Centre this year.

“This was our attempt to cater to the industry’s desire to have a platform this year for getting together and engaging in dialogue following the postponement of the two flagship exhibitions in September. In times when people are traveling less and communicating more online, a hybrid format seemed to us to be the most suitable way to give the industry this platform,” explained Sabine Loos: “Feeding the online part of a hybrid event with content for virtual visitors naturally requires a panoply of physical events, but the travel associated with being physically present remains a real challenge – especially for international participants – and in the end, this is what led to the event being canceled.”

Large numbers of people in the smoking and tobacco industry were quick to commit to participating as exhibitors at this innovative interactive platform in November. The concept has generated a great deal of interest, especially abroad, which is a great signal for Dortmund Exhibition Centre, as it underlines how important the annual get-together in Dortmund is for the industry.

Dortmund Exhibition Centre is adhering to the concept of hybrid events and is currently examining – and will continue to do so in the coming weeks – the extent to which this format can be used successfully to supplement other trade fairs in the future. “We can see the potential this format has for several fairs that are held here. Now it’s all about developing these possibilities and grafting them onto our core propositions,” added Sabine Loos, with an eye to the future of the trade fair business.

Everyone involved in this project has worked with great enthusiasm under high pressure to implement the ITShub. Now it is time to focus on making InterTabac and InterSupply 2021 a successful international flagship line-up and to apply our energies to the months ahead.

Dortmund Exhibition Centre also wishes to thank the many professional partners for their excellent teamwork, for believing in the project, and working hard on making it a reality.