The 19th Seoul International Cafe Show 2020 was held on 4-7th November in Seoul, South Korea.
Due to the global Covid pandemic, the show was held in a new, “hybrid” format different from its previous exhibitions combining online and offline platforms.
The show concluded with successful numbers of 426 exhibitors, 72,388 visitors and 258,441 online visitors.
Cafe Show Seoul is the forst exhibition ever to collaborate with ‘Naver Shopping Live’ – one of Korea’s largest live commerce platforms.
Through this live commerce platform, Cafe Show Seoul delivered business information from participating exhibitors to over 203,000 viewers, which led to elevated sales and provided a platform for business networking.
This collaboration couldn’t have come at a better time, especially due to the Covid pandemic, many global exhibitions had to cancel or postpone due to travel restrictions, and health & safety concerns.
Cafe Show Seoul also partnered with six famous YouTubers in Korea to shoot various episodes of ‘Cafe Show Seoul 2020 Virtual Tour’. The YouTubers took online audiences to various parts of exhibition grounds and to visit exhibitor booths as a virtual tour experience.
Furthermore, Cafe Show Seoul held ‘Digital Fair’, which can be found on Cafe Show Seoul’s official website. Through this Digital Fair, visitors could look at the different exhibitors participating at the show and contact them directly.
For the exhibitors who couldn’t travel, Cafe Show Seoul provided them with a platform called, ‘Smart Contact Program’. This is where they are offered to participate at an online webinar for their target audience and/or at a booth directed by the exhibitor but manned by a professional assisting in promoting exhibitors’ products to visitors at the show.
Cafe Show Seoul’s concurrent event, ‘World Coffee Leaders Forum,’ invited global leaders of the industry to provide solutions for the current coffee industry.
Jose Sette, chairman of the International Coffee Organization (ICO), was one of the key speakers. He stated that the future of the world coffee industry is still bright in the long term, but emphasised the need to encourage the young generation to enter the coffee industry.
Jose Sette, chairman of the International Coffee Organization (ICO)
Jose Sette further encouraged the younger generation to be part of the coffee industry by showing the strong opportunities and support the sector offers.
In addition, Yannis Apostolopoulous, Chief Executive Director of Specialty Coffee Association (SCA), along with other professional leaders spoke about the impact of the pandemic and how it has affected the coffee market and consumption trends.
As Cafe Show Seoul 2020 came to an end, they presented the keyword, ‘S.M.I.L.E’ for the 2021 market trend.
S.M.I.LE stands for:
Subscription (Increase trend of coffee subscriptions)
Modification (Changes in the coffee market for the Millennials and Z generations)
Identity (Growing strength of coffee in the world market)
Luxury (Customers growing need for luxury goods)
Environment (Increased awareness for environment & sustainability issues)
Next years 20th Seoul International Cafe Show will take place on the 10-13 November 2021 at Coex in Seoul, South Korea.
