Ivonne Seifert was appointed Director of Marketing Communication in the Textiles & Textile Technologies Business Unit of Messe Frankfurt with effect from 1 October 2021.
In her new position, Ivonne Seifert (42) is in charge of marketing communication for the leading international trade fairs, Heimtextil, Techtextil and Texprocess, and the Neonyt and Val:ue fashion fairs, as well as communication activities for the international brand management of around 60 events worldwide covering the entire value chain of the textile and fashion industry. She replaces Thimo Schwenzfeier, who is leaving Messe Frankfurt after more than eight years, to take up new professional challenges.
Her duties include the communication activities relating to the successful resumption of fairs in the textile sector and the establishment of the fashion brands of Messe Frankfurt as part of the Frankfurt Fashion Week. Additionally, she is responsible for the further expansion of smart- data-driven marketing for the textile fairs and the communication activities of the worldwide Texpertise Network.
Ivonne Seifert joined Messe Frankfurt ten years ago and, during this time, has held a variety of positions in marketing. She has extensive marketing expertise in both the B2B and B2C fields. Over the last seven
years, Ivonne Seifert has greatly intensified the international top-visitor marketing and augmented her expertise in the consumer goods and textile segment. In this connection, she paid particular attention to national and international key-account retention for, e.g., the Heimtextil, Ambiente, ISH and Christmasworld fairs. Moreover, she played a major role in establishing smart data for new-customer acquisition in the top visitor segment.
Before joining Messe Frankfurt, a graduate in politics and media sciences was a marketing manager with Lagardère Travel Retail Deutschland in Wiesbaden. There, she was responsible for the marketing and communication activities for the German market with a particular focus on POS marketing, key-account management and press activities.
An enthusiastic globetrotter, Ivonne Seifert developed her interest in the fair and exhibition business while working in the marketing department of the Toy Fair in Nuremberg, where her duties included exhibitor marketing, event management and key-account management.
Background information on Messe Frankfurt
The Messe Frankfurt Group is the world’s largest trade fair, congress and event organiser with its own exhibition grounds. The Group employs approximately 2,450 people at its headquarters in Frankfurt am Main and in 29 subsidiaries around the world.
The company generated annual sales of approximately €257 million in 2020 after having recorded sales of €736 million the previous year. Even in difficult times caused by the coronavirus pandemic, we are globally networked with our industry sectors. We serve our customers’ business interests efficiently within the framework of our Fairs & Events, Locations and Services business fields.
One of the Group’s key USPs is its closely knit global sales network, which extends throughout the world. Our comprehensive range of services – both onsite and online – ensures that customers worldwide enjoy consistently high quality and flexibility when planning, organising and running their events. We are expanding our digital expertise with new business models. The wide range of services includes renting exhibition grounds, trade fair construction and marketing, personnel and food services. With its headquarters in Frankfurt am Main, the company is owned by the City of Frankfurt (60 percent) and the State of Hesse (40 percent).