Light + Building has today announced that its director, Maria Hasselman, is handing over management of the show to new director, Johannes Möller.
Hasselman assumed responsibility for Light + Building and its approximately 1,900 exhibitors from 80 countries in 2003. At that time, the trade fair saw 110,000 visitors to Frankfurt am Main. During Hasselman’s management, the figures have increased year on year for 15 years, with 2018 attracting 220,000 visitors from over 150 countries to see products and services from around 2,700 exhibitors.
Möller is now responsible for continuing this success into the future.
With previous sales experience from many years of working on Prolight + Sound, the event manager also spent four years as the personal assistant to the president and CEO of Messe Frankfurt. Following that, 2017 saw him appointed as director of the brand management and development team in the company’s Technology Business Unit.
A smooth handover of responsibility, Möller has been working alongside Hasselman since the beginning of the year in order to gain insight into her extensive knowledge and experience of managing the Light + Building trade fair.
Möller will report to Iris Jeglitza-Moshage, senior vice president of Messe Frankfurt.
Commenting on his new role, Möller said: “My aim is to add to the experience of the fair for all concerned, including through the use of digital channels. Accordingly, the portfolio will soon be supplemented by a variety of formats, such as podcasts, online products and trend shows, as well as internet discussion forums.
“At the same time, there can be no doubt that personal encounters are irreplaceable. This applies not only to confidence-building measures and product quality analysis but also, of course, to networking and the exchange of ideas and information. I am looking forward to achieving this aim by continuing the close working relationship with our cooperation partners, the ZVEI and ZVEH associations.”
Maria Hasselman, former director of Light + Building
Hasselman will officially retire from Messe Frankfurt in August 2020. Honouring her 20 years with the company, Jeglitza-Moshage said: “Maria Hasselman has an unrivalled ability to immerse herself in highly complex subjects and was thus able to manage perfectly the trade fair structures and marketing of Light + Building.
“Moreover, we profited from her ability to interconnect the different disciplines of this extremely varied sector and to understand the individual challenges facing them.”
She continued: “I would like to have seen this year’s anniversary edition of Light + Building as the crowning glory of Maria Hasselman’s work. Unfortunately, the coronavirus put paid to this wish. We will miss her, At the same time, we wish her all the very best for the future.”
Thinking back over the last 20 years with the company, Hasselman said: “There was nothing automatic about the way Light + Building developed. One of the keys to success was interdisciplinary thinking and planning.
“It was no less necessary to establish links between the trade, artisans, the industry, planners and architects than between the various disciplines in the field of building services technology. At the same time, this success would not have been possible without the commitment of our partners and the media.”
Light + Building with Intersec Building will return to Frankfurt am Main from 13-18 March 2022.