Dietmar Thomas appointed Head of Trade Fair Press Department

Project Communications at Messe Düsseldorf Readjust.

1 January 2019 sees Dietmar Thomas (51) take the helm in Messe Düsseldorf's trade fair press department – which, alongside Corporate Communications and Marketing Services, forms one of the three communication pillars of the company. In this post Thomas will be in charge of trade fair communications for the individual projects.

The mediascape will now have a new main contact for the events of Messe Düsseldorf: 1 January 2019 will see Dietmar Thomas take office as the new head of the trade fair press department. In this role Thomas will be in charge of communications for all trade fair projects. He will strengthen the standing of the individual trade fairs in the mediascape and their perception in their relevant target groups and drive digital transformation of the project and trade fair communication. Dietmar Thomas reports to Dr. Christian Plenge, Division Director of Digital Strategy and Communication.

Wolfram Diener, operative Managing Director responsible in charge of Digital Strategy and Communication at Messe Düsseldorf, delights at filling this key position: “Our trade fairs are the global hubs and hinge points for their respective industries. In times of digital change it is all the more important to reach the sectors'target groups in an up-to-date, effective way and strengthen trade fairs as their first point of contact – also beyond the duration of the trade fairs proper.” Dietmar Thomas, he adds, is the right person to do so as an experienced expert in communications.

Thomas comes to this new role from the Publicis group of agencies where he has established and managed the editorial department focused on content marketing in Düsseldorf since 2016. Prior to this position he served as a press spokesman in charge of marketing for brand companies and taking care of global product communications and held several executive positions at magazines and agencies in Germany and abroad. Thomas studied modern communication and learnt script and creative writing for film and TV at the “School of Theater, Film and Television” of the University of California in Los Angeles.

“I look forward to using my 30 years of communication experience for Messe Düsseldorf, a company that organises numerous exciting and successful global No. 1 trade fairs. One of my key aims is to strategically develop further its project communication as part of digital transformation,” says Thomas, who follows on from Eva Rugenstein. In December 2018 this former head of the trade press department retired after serving in this role for 25 years at Messe Düsseldorf.

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The Messe Düsseldorf Group:

With a revenue of around EUR 367m in 2017, the Messe Düsseldorf Group has maintained its position as one of Germany's most successful trade fair companies. Over 29,000 exhibitors presented their products to 1.34m trade visitors at the company’s events in Düsseldorf this year. The Düsseldorf Exhibition Centre hosts around 50 trade fairs in five sectors of expertise: machinery, plants and equipment; the retail trade, trades and services; medicine and healthcare; lifestyle and beauty; and leisure. The trade fairs include 23 proprietary number one trade fairs currently, as well as 15 robust partner and guest events. Also, its subsidiary Düsseldorf Congress holds around 3,300 conventions, corporate events, conferences and meetings, attracting around 640,000 delegates in all. In addition, the Messe Düsseldorf Group organises 70 proprietary events, participations and contracted events in other countries and is one of the leading export platforms in the world. Moreover, Messe Düsseldorf GmbH comes first in the internationalism of its capital goods trade fairs. In 2017, Messe Düsseldorf's proprietary events in machinery, plants and equipment attracted approx. 74% international exhibitors and 73% trade visitors from other countries. In all, Düsseldorf trade fairs were attended by customers from about 180 countries. The Group runs a global network of sales offices in 140 countries (with 76 international representations) as well as competence centres in 8 countries.