IFA just wrapped up its 100th anniversary show for 2024, attracting over 215,000 visitors from 138 countries—including more than 133,000 trade visitors— to the city of Berlin, Germany for a five-day celebration of consumer electronics innovation.

Among the more than 150 speakers this year, keynotes were delivered by Dr Reinhard Zinkann, the Executive Director and Co-Proprietor of the Miele Group; Mark Barrocas, the CEO of SharkNinja; Dr Karsten Wildberger, the CEO of MediaMarktSaturn; and Acclaimed singer, actress and philanthropist Nicole Scherzinger speaking on a variety of topics ranging from how white goods can be a part of the circular economy to how technology is changing music, entertainment, philanthropy, and advocacy.

Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz opened IFA 100 at the Gala event on Thursday evening, followed by an opening tour to see the latest innovation across all sectors.

IFA Attendance Up 18% YoY

With visitor numbers up 18% over last year, IFA saw a surge in visitors, particularly from the United States, Italy, France, Poland, Korea and the United Kingdom. With halls fully booked, IFA Berlin hosted more than 1,800 exhibitors, with strong growth especially in ‘Smart Home,‘ ‘Communication & Connectivity,‘ ‘Computing & Gaming,‘ ‘Audio,‘ ‘Photo, Video & Content Creation’ and ‘Digital Health.’

More than 200 start-ups crowded into the innovation hub IFA NEXT, to showcase, among other innovative devices, a flying car, cognitive robots and AI-powered drones. Many start-ups came from South Korea, which was this year’s IFA NEXT Innovation Partner Country for 2024.

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IFA 100 also saw the return of the famous Sommergarten, which was packed for performances from international music legends like Bryan Adams, Faithless and some of Germany’s top hip hop artists curated by 6PM. A live recording of Germany’s popular Fest and Flauschig podcasts also saw thousands of fans flock to the Sommergarten.

Attendees Respond Well to IFA Rebrand as Showcase of “Near-Future” Technology

IFA’s 100th Anniversary also came with a rebranding of the event’s traditional logo, with showrunners noting the importance of demonstrating IFA as a platform for exhibitors and retailers in the tech sector to showcase the near-future of the technology industry,

Dr Sara Warneke, Managing Director of gfu Consumer & Home Electronics GmbH, which owns the IFA brand, noted: “IFA 100 has exceeded all our expectations. We can see that the changed concept of IFA is working, in no small part due to the fact that young media professionals and content creators in particular were able to inspire their generation for IFA.

“The feedback from our partners, exhibitors, the retail industry and of course all visitors is unanimous. IFA 100 has been a huge success for them, for their business and for our industry. This year, IFA has proven to be truly the platform for the next 100 years.”

This year there was a broad range of real-life implementations of the latest generation of Artificial Intelligence tools. Sustainability was another big topic across the fairgrounds, with companies showing how they offer more sustainable devices, and how their products and services can help consumers to live more sustainable lives.

Digital Health was also prominent, as consumers are looking for ways how technology can help them stay healthy.

Leif Lindner, CEO of IFA Berlin Management GmbH, commented: “What a wonderful 100th birthday party for IFA, and what an amazing year for the world’s leading technology trade fair.

“We are grateful to all our industry, all trade visitors, the public and all the media who came to Berlin and truly made IFA 100 a year and an event to remember. We are satisfied with the huge number of commitments already from our exhibitors to participate at IFA 2025.”

IFA 2025 takes place September 5 — 9 in Berlin.

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