#Exhibitions & Events
Messe Frankfurt restructures its Textile Business Unit with personnel changes for the Texpertise Network
The Frankfurt Fashion Week has been enriching Messe Frankfurt’s portfolio of textile events since the announcement in May 2020. Due to the pandemic, the first edition in July 2021 was held digitally as the FFW Studio. The event was organised by Frankfurt Fashion Week Director Dr Hendrik Müller-Giegler, who took over this position in June 2021 from Ricarda Quehl, who is currently on maternity leave. With managerial and international marketing experience in the media and entertainment industry, Hendrik Müller-Giegler, joined Messe Frankfurt as Marketing Communications Director in the Entertainment, Media & Creative Industries Business Unit in 2018.
A major role in the development of the Frankfurt Fashion Week has also been played by Claudia Franz, who has extensive experience of the international fashion and textile sector and has been with Messe Frankfurt as Director of Brand Management, Interior & Contract Textiles and Apparel Fabrics & Fashion, since 2019. She is currently involved in the launch of the new quality mainstream fashion fair, Val:ue, and a supplementary downstream event, Apparel Sourcing in Fashion, both of which will be held in association with the Frankfurt Fashion Week.
Two other changes have been made following the resignation of Thimo Schwenzfeier who leaves the company at his own request on 31 October 2021, to take up new professional challenges.
He is followed in the position of Neonyt Show Director by Bettina Bär who has worked for Messe Frankfurt in a variety of positions in the consumer-goods fairs division since 2012, most recently as Tendence Show Director. In this connection she was, inter alia, jointly responsible for the Ethical Style Guide, in which ecologically oriented exhibitors of the Tendence trade fair were specially labelled and promoted after having been selected by an expert jury. Additionally, Bettina Bär has been appointed co-director of the new fashion fair, Val:ue, which makes its debut during the Frankfurt Fashion Week in January 2022 and is set to be the corner stone of the quality and mainstream fashion segment.
The Marketing Communication Department has been headed by Ivonne Seifert since 1 October 2021. Accordingly, she is now in charge of marketing communication for the leading international trade fairs, Heimtextil, Techtextil and Texprocess, and the Neonyt and Val:ue fashion fairs, as well as the communication activities for the international Texpertise Network. Ivonne Seifert joined Messe Frankfurt ten years ago and has held a variety of positions in marketing. She has extensive marketing expertise in both the B2B and B2C fields.
All report to Olaf Schmidt, Vice President Textiles & Textile Technologies, who is responsible for the Texpertise Network at Messe Frankfurt. With an unparalleled portfolio of around 60 international textile fairs, Messe Frankfurt is the world market leader for trade fairs in the textile sector. In 2019, the last year before the pandemic, more than 23,000 exhibitors and over 600,000 visitors took part in events organised by Messe Frankfurt around the globe. The spectrum of fairs covers the whole value chain of the textile industry.
