BERLIN — Jens Heithecker has seen a lot of changes in the 15 years he’s been part of Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin, or IFA. But that’s understandable, as this show is all about change – starting from the first show in 1924 that focused on the miracle invention of the day: radio.
“We came from the radio and TV industries only. [Then] we opened for the IT industry, the telecommunications industry,” says the IFA Executive Director.
The show’s focus has also changed, according to Heithecker, from a Germany-centric event to a Europe-centric event and now a global event.
Also: the industries considered part of ‘consumer electronics’ have changed dramatically.
Heithecker says those expansions were only natural. Not so natural to the un-trained eye in the past decade: home appliances.
That may seem counter to IFA’s reputation as the home of serious razzle-dazzle as, each year, cutting edge inventors and marketers try to out-do the products they unveiled just last year.
“Bringing together these [home appliance] industries creates a new innovation platform, creates new, innovative products… in a lineup you’ve never seen before – and playing together [like] you’ve never seen before.”
“When the home appliance industry joined IFA, their reputation was not so innovative – and they had a product cycle of two years. Then they had to appear every year here. And of course, whenever you exhibit annually, you need new products annually. And that was a driving force for the home appliance industry.”
That need to bring something new each year sped up companies’ innovations cycles, forcing them to come up with new products and to integrate technologies from other industries in their own appliances.
More than 1,800 exhibitors will pack into the Berlin Expo Center City – a 26-building complex of covering 170,000 square meters. Unlike CES, the huge electronics trade show in Las Vegas, IFA is open to the public. About 240,000 people bought tickets last year to see the latest cool stuff.
IFA is no stranger to ‘firsts’ over its history. An early version of television was unveiled in 1931. The maker of an affordable radio sold 100,000 units at the 1933 show. Audio giant AEG demonstrated the first practical audio tape recorder in 1935. A prototype color TV made a splash in 1939. Phillips introduced the compact cassette in 1963.
WTOP’s Rich Johnson is in Berlin and filed this story for Into Tomorrow. It has been reprinted with permission.
