ISPO Munich, the world’s leading sports network for business professionals and consumer experts, will be organising a retail programme ‘Altogether to Munich’ from February 3–6, 2019, to support sports retailers. The programme is an extension of ‘Club ISPO France’, which has been connecting retailers from France with partners and exhibitors for five years now.

To give international retailers easier access to ISPO Munich, the retail programme now offers sports retailers from Austria, Italy, Poland, Scandinavia, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, a comprehensive package for their trade fair trip to Munich, according to a media release by the association. In addition to providing support with all the travel formalities, ISPO Munich brings them together with contacts for brands and distributors, shows them best practice shops on a retail tour of the Bavarian capital and provides a further networking platform through its evening programme. Furthermore, a country specific online platform supports the participants for easy appointment and networking in the run-up to the trade fair.

The ticket structure for sports retailers has also been optimised in order to further underscore the nature of ISPO Munich as a trading platform. 

The retailer programme has already proven successful for French retail. In 2018, more than 600 participants came to Munich via ‘Club ISPO France’.

“The initiative is a win-win situation for exhibitors and retailers alike. While brands and manufacturers value the presence of international retailers as the most important visitor group, participating retailers receive access in their local language and thanks to the organisation, they can prepare perfectly for their trade fair visit in advance,” said Markus Hefter, exhibition group director for ISPO Munich.

ISPO Munich is the only multi-segment trader fair for the sports business and is the most important platform for retailers and wholesalers, sales representatives and distributors from all over the world for finding out about market developments, innovations and trends in the sports world and for sharing information with business partners.

Since digitalisation is also becoming increasingly important in the sports business, ISPO is focusing more heavily on digital trends for retail. ISPO Digitize is a platform on which sports retailers, for example, can be inspired by digital pioneers and experience the digital retail technology hands on.

ISPO Academy also provides internationality and knowledge transfer. It is presented at ISPO Munich with an extensive conference programme and offers conferences and seminars as well as online and offline training programmes for the sports business all year round. At local conferences, the ISPO Academy also addresses topics that affect individual markets. (PC)