fairconcept · since 2000

Positioning and strategy for exhibitors. Because exhibition success is no accident.

What should visitors think of you as they leave your stand?

And what should they do next?

We don't build stands. We don't train staff. We clarify what has to be decided first — before you spend the budget.

Start the Strategy Test → 5 minutes · no sign-up Strategy call with Lars Lockemann 30 minutes · no obligation
The method MesseCode
Market diagnosis

Most exhibitors falter at these questions.

Around 70% of exhibitors can't answer them clearly. Not because they're bad at their jobs — but because most operate around the strategy instead of through it:

Stand builders. Trainers. Lead tools. Caterers. Hotels. Every step can be commissioned, because every step is familiar. The decisions that come first — positioning and strategy — fall through the gaps between everyone's remit. "The stand builder will sort that out." That is not the same thing.

The result: investment with no guarantee of effect. Stands that look good but leave nothing behind. Exhibitions ticked off the list because you always do them.

The most expensive mistakes happen long before anyone signs a contract.

Definitions

Two words everyone uses. We mean them precisely.

Positioning · noun
/pəˈzɪʃənɪŋ/
Sense 1 — fairconcept

What visitors say as they leave your stand. And what they do next.

Not a strapline for the wall. Not a big idea for the brief. A measurable perception — in the right people, in the right words, with the right consequence.

Before the showWhich perception do you want to create, in whom exactly, with what consequence?
At the showIs that perception produced at the stand, or merely decorated?
After the showAre the right people now doing what you wanted — and do you know it?

Positioning is what stays in the mind once you've gone.

Strategy · noun
/ˈstratədʒi/
Sense 1 — fairconcept

The path to it. In full.

Before the showInvitation logic, social-media build-up, pre-show campaign, target-customer activation.
At the showStand-concept brief, touchpoints, on-site advertising, team direction, lead logic.
After the showFollow-up sequence, CRM handover, impact measurement.

Not the communications concept — that sits a level below. The architecture that pulls every channel into a single effect.

Strategy holds every discipline others sell separately. We put them in the right order.

Three audiences

We work for three audiences. With one method.

Exhibitors want to make an impact. Organisers want their exhibitors to make an impact. Associations, programmes and pavilion organisers want their members and funding recipients to make an impact. It's the same problem from three angles.

For exhibitors

Positioning and strategy for exhibitors. Before you spend the budget.

For industrial and technology mid-sized companies that take exhibitions seriously — and sense that "the way we've always done it" no longer holds. First-time exhibitors too.

Three ways in: from the Strategy Test to one-to-one work.

MesseCode for exhibitors →
For organisers

Positioning and strategy for exhibitors. Before you lose exhibitors.

For exhibition organisers whose rebooking is slipping, because exhibitors no longer know whether taking part pays off.

Exhibitor Success for your show — as a repeatable group format.

MesseCode for organisers →
Associations, programmes & pavilions

Positioning and strategy for exhibitors. So that support delivers.

For associations, chambers, ministries, economic-development agencies and pavilion organisers.

Two ways: an introductory webinar for your members. Or a group programme for your pavilion.

MesseCode for partners →
Trust

Why companies trust fairconcept

MesseCode isn't built on theory. It's built on practice — over many years, in many constellations. We've seen what works. And we've seen what fails expensively.

Not a textbook framework, but a system of real decisions made under real pressure.

From that system we built a method — seven levels, scalable with AI support. That's how we make strategy and positioning available to exhibitors who never had an agency for it before.

Publications
20+
own book on managing exhibitions professionally, co-author of the AUMA standard work on successful exhibition participation, numerous articles & interviews
Talks & workshops
50+
AUMA, German chambers of commerce (IHK) and abroad (AHK), BVIK, OMT, industry conferences
Experience
25+
years in live communication
Clients
500+
exhibition projects
Voices

What working together feels like

Structure, calm, and a partner that thinks with you.

fairconcept guides our exhibition appearances with clarity and personal support. From new conditions they shaped a stand concept that both commands attention and is built to last.

TW
Tizian Werner
PR & Communications Manager, Solandeo GmbH

MesseCode was a real game-changer.

fairconcept guided us through every project phase with clear structure, experience and well-aimed input. Thanks to the groundwork we could carry out much in-house and keep developing in a focused way.

DD
Diana Dietz
Project Lead, Fürstenberg Institut

Structure, energy and clarity across every session.

fairconcept designed and guided our webinar series strategically. The clear structure, hands-on tasks and the style of facilitation created palpable energy — for me as much as for the participants.

AZ
Agnese Zīmele
Project Manager, Investment and Development Agency of Latvia
Exhibition and decision-making guided at
Speck Pumpen■ PRIMO■ Panalpina■ Solandeo■ Fürstenberg Institut■ Hoppecke■ Berghof■ ElringKlinger■ Antalis■ Speck Pumpen■ PRIMO■ Panalpina■ Solandeo■ Fürstenberg Institut■ Hoppecke■ Berghof■ ElringKlinger■ Antalis■
A filter, not a pitch

MesseCode isn't for everyone

We don't believe exhibitions are the right tool for every company. And not every exhibitor, organiser or programme lead needs MesseCode. Some markets are better served online. Some budgets are better spent elsewhere. And some companies don't want to have the conversation at all. That's legitimate.

We work with those who want to change it. Who know that "the way we've always done it" isn't a strategy. Who are ready to step up a level before execution and ask the uncomfortable questions.

If that's not you: also fine. There are easier providers. If it is: let's talk.

Right for you if:

  • The exhibition, exhibitor programme or funding logic is strategically relevant, not routine
  • You have influence over direction and decisions
  • You want impact, not just attendance
  • You're ready to question well-worn routines

Not right if:

  • "The way we've always done it" is the consensus — yours or your stakeholders'
  • You're after quick inspiration, not a process of clarification
  • You're looking for a stand builder, a lead-gen vendor or a funding administrator with a strategy veneer
  • Tiny budgets. We don't work miracles
Three ways in

Three ways into MesseCode

01 Low threshold

Quick and light

Strategy Test. 5 minutes.

Seven levels. An honest diagnosis — not a lead-magnet trick, but a real self-assessment. You get a score and see where you stand.

Start the Strategy Test →
02 Medium threshold

Self-application

MesseCode Playbook. ~50 pages.

Around 50 pages of method, with the seven levels and prompts. For teams that want to work on it themselves. We send it to you by email within 24 hours.

Request the Playbook →
03 Direct contact

Direct and concrete

Strategy call with Lars. 30 minutes.

Together we look at whether an exhibition makes sense for your situation, where the risks lie, and whether MesseCode really fits. If it doesn't, we'll say so plainly.

Book a strategy call →
About us

We are fairconcept

Twenty-five years in B2B live communication. We started as an exhibition agency. Today, deliberately, we're not one. We don't deliver stands, stand graphics or tenders. We deliver the stage before that: positioning and strategy. Because we've seen where the expensive mistakes happen. Not in the build. Before it.

Lars Lockemann

Lars Lockemann

Leads strategy, systems logic and decision confidence in complex live situations.

ll@fairconcept.de +49 151 230 151 41
Anna-Katharina Esche

Anna-Katharina Esche

Makes sure concepts work in reality. Clarity, structure and confidence for teams in delivery.

Anna.esche@fairconcept.de +49 151 230 151 40