What remains of an event when the lights go out, the applause has faded and the wi-fi's been switched off? It's not just the technical refinements – but the shared moments and impressions – that have a lasting effect and connect people, and that's exactly where the newly designed space at BOE INTERNATIONAL comes in: a platform for visionary business models, innovative technologies and lively event formats that create lasting experiences.

Dortmund, 8 August 2025 – Starting in January 2026, BOE INTERNATIONAL is expanding its portfolio, adding an innovative exhibitor area focusing on start-ups, advanced systems and creative storytellers. The result will be a leading-edge platform providing space for new inspiration and fresh outlooks within the event industry. Visionary start-ups wishing to present their innovations are invited, as are discerning trade visitors looking to reflect on these innovations – or interested in actively helping to shape them. One of the newcomers is itemdrop, winner of the 2025 Captain MICE Future Award. With its newly developed cloakroom system, the guest's bank card becomes a cloakroom token – without any need to download an app or register.

Partnership with the renowned Founders Fight Club

BOE 2026 at Messe Dortmund will host the first ever Founders Fight Night – an innovative live pitch event drawing start-ups, decision-makers and show-goers straight into the action. The new collaboration between the Founders Fight Club and Messe Dortmund will offer a deliberately wide variety of topics ranging from experience tech and AR/VR installations to sensor-based touchpoint systems, AI planning tools and green event solutions through to the creator economy for hybrid and youth-oriented aspects.Founders Fight Night will see start-up founders go head-to-head in exciting live pitches on a specially designed stage in Hall 5 – relying only on rhetoric, personality and vision. They will have just a few minutes to impress the audience and the panel of judges with their business model. An interactive vote and valuable feedback from an expert panel of judges will decide who wins or loses. The major players in the industry will also be listening closely in their search for new ideas and potential cooperation partners. A networking zone right beside the ring will bring investors, partners and pioneers together after the pitches.

In tandem with the new exhibitor area, an independent content platform is being created as a media extension to the new start-up area and in order to deepen its subject-matter coverage. A central element will be the new FORMAT SHIFT podcast produced by Merchants Bloc in collaboration with BOE INTERNATIONAL. It will take conventional events such as the Oktoberfest, product launches and city festivals and view them in the context of current innovations such as AI automation, the metaverse or the creator economy. Host Jan C. Küster will talk to imaginative start-ups and experienced industry experts about how concepts, expectations and tools are changing in the event industry.

BOE INTERNATIONAL 2026 – a force for innovation

The new format is another example of how BOE INTERNATIONAL is also making the event industry accessible to young businesses, developers and creative minds. At the same time, show-goers will gain inspiring insights into innovations that have the potential to enrich their own event activities. “With Founders Fight Night, we're creating a platform for courageous start-ups who are rethinking the exhibition and events business in multi-sensory, digital and human ways, adding fresh ideas. BOE INTERNATIONAL regards itself as a driving force, and this collaboration is another concerted step for us, moving towards fresh outlooks, new concepts and new tools for the event industry,” said Sabine Loos, Managing Director of Westfalenhallen Unternehmensgruppe which owns and operates the Messe Dortmund venue.

Jan C. Küster, founder of Founders Fight Club, is also enthusiastic about the collaboration, saying: “We want to show technology as a tool not for replacing things but for enhancing experiences and making certain things more convenient to achieve, taking events to a new level. A perfect interplay of technology, creativity and the human touch creates experiences that can't simply be scrolled over and ignored. Working with BOE INTERNATIONAL, we're creating a new resonance space for exactly this type of innovation,” said the experienced international start-up expert.



Come along and exhibit
Anyone wishing to present their products and services as a supplier at this show for the international event industry can click here for more information and the opportunity to sign up.

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