Bar Convent confirms new venue for 2020 expansion

By Mathew Lyons and Jo Gilbert

Published: 07 October, 2019

Berlin-based international bar trade event Bar Convent has found a new, bigger home.

Next year, the show will relocate to the exhibition halls around the base of the Funkturm radio tower at Berlin ExpoCenter City.

The event’s organisers will use the new venue to launch a new ‘City Life Spirits’ concept for the show.

City Life Spirits is intended to reflect contemporary urban life, with the exhibition spaces transformed into a range of different identities, including an urban market, a French bistro and a community bar.

There will also be co-working spaces and a rooftop bar, while the transit areas will be feature everything from late-night convenience stores to coffee bars, exhibitions and musical performances.

The show's event director Petra Lassahn said the planned move was down to a lot of construction at the event’s current location and the “uncertainty” this created for BCB. As well as securing the 2020 show, the new venue will enable expansion to welcome a bigger tranche of some 18,000 visitors.

Speaking at the show’s morning briefing, Lassahn said: “We will be occupying the old exhibition hall, near the palais entrance beneath the old radio tower which was built in the 1950s. These areas have a charm all their own, and they give us an immense opportunity to redesign the BCB.

"The event will be held in 13 smaller areas and larger exhibition halls. Most importantly for us was to maintain the core of the BCB as a premium product with a funky, informal atmosphere that welcomes people from all over the world. The new location creates more space for creativity, stand construction, presentations and networking.”

Speaking of the show's new 'City Life Spirits' concept, Lassahn added: “The BCB and Berlin are inseparable for us, and this new concept will unify the show and the city’s character, bringing Berlin’s urban spirit to the exhibition halls.”

Founded in 2007, Bar Convent has been at Station Berlin since 2013. Previous venues in the city have included the Glashaus and the Postbahnhof am Ostbahnhof.

Bar Convent 2020 will run from 12 to 14 October. Bar Convent also runs events in New York and Sao Paolo.

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