"Plating Universe" was the ambitious name of our first virtual in-house exhibition. The fourteen-day event ended on December 13. Publishers and trade fair visitors alike drew a positive conclusion.
This is how the virtual visitors were greetedThebackstory has been repeated many times in 2020. Due to the ongoing pandemic, almost all trade fairs - and other events - were canceled. There was a need for action. The topic was discussed intensively within the publishing house. The decision was made to hold our own virtual in-house trade fair and, rather self-confidently, named it "Plating Universe" to underline the publisher's extensive program.
A good eight weeks passed between the decision and the opening of the trade fair on November 30. Elaborately designed pages showed the complete publishing program. Various games, presentations and prizes offered all kinds of fun and variety.
Insights into the publishing house
In addition to the informative exhibition pages, the presentations proved to be highlights. In the first week, lectures were given daily from 4 p.m. on different topics, mostly relating to the publishing house. The first topic was "The Leuze World". Viewers were introduced to the portfolio and background information was explained. As all the speeches were streamed via Twitch, everyone was able to follow them. In any case, there was no need to register for the entire trade fair.
The most popular presentation followed on Tuesday. "The new electroplating technology" was presented, providing a historical context dating back to 1953. Wednesday saw a comprehensive presentation on our e-learning platform "Galvanotechnik for you". All the options and courses were demonstrated in detail. Building on this, the focus on Thursday was on didactics. The presentation "Employee qualification 2020" broke down classic and modern pedagogy. It showed various ways of imparting knowledge efficiently and served as inspiration for internal staff training.
Presentation of the new "electroplating technology"
The first week was rounded off on Friday with a presentation on "The history of electroplating". Our own trade fair chat was particularly popular during the live stream. Here, questions from our employees could be answered during the presentation and various topics discussed.
In the second week, the focus was on our editors-in-chief. On Wednesday, Heinz Käsinger was interviewed about his Galvano thriller "The Helsinki Conspiracy" and also read out a few pages from the crime novel. On Thursday, Volker Tisken gave a lecture on the world of PLUS.
Presentation of the book program
Presentation of the new online courses
A challenging quiz rounded off the in-house exhibition
Fun, games and prizes
Our two games "Galvaxy" and Memory were often clicked onAgood trade fair should entertain its visitors. Interactive elements ensured this. Questions about metals, occupational safety and Leuze Verlag could be answered in the quiz. The two HTML5 games, Memory and Galvaxy, were very popular. In Galvaxy, you flew from left to right through an electrolyte in the shape of an ion, either as silver, nickel or chromium(III), and had to fight your way from anode to cathode. The valence electrons, which could be used to shoot molecules, particles and air bubbles, helped with this. There was everything from water dipoles to uric acid. The best ten players were shown on the start page of the fair with their names. At times, the players called out their ranking in the chat to spur each other on.
There were five different sets of cards in the memory game, each with a surface technology, chemistry or electronics theme. Under time pressure, the ten pairs of cards had to be revealed in order to achieve the minimum score of 850 points. Those who managed to do so could enter a form to take part in a book prize draw.
The big prize draw, where you could win a 65'' smart TV from Toshiba, was like looking for Easter eggs. Letters were hidden on all sides of the trade fairs. If you found them, you had to send in the solution word to take part in the competition. The word they were looking for was GALVANISM.
Last but not least, you could win online courses and magazine subscriptions every day by answering three questions correctly in the chat.
Conclusion:
Plating Universe was an attempt to present the publishing house as if it were at a real trade fair. The focus was on information, fun and communication. This was well received by the visitors. Questions about products, services and future projects were answered in the chat and presentations. Apart from that, there were some nice chats, which at times made people forget that they were not face-to-face.
