Only a month after announcing that it will run a replacement show for the cancelled 2013 IMA in Düsseldorf, the German trade association, VDAI, has called off the new project. The decision was taken at a meeting on Friday.
The association had decided to cancel the 2013 IMA show because of the pressure from proposed new legislation against arcades planned by Germany’s 16 provinces. With pressure then applied by the exhibitors, who felt they needed an opportunity to mix with the operators in Germany, it was decided to run an ‘IMA without AWPs’ so that the major payout machine manufacturers - Gauselmann Group, Löwen and Bally Wulff - could distance themselves from the new show.
It was to be called ALEX (Amusement and Leisure Expo) and it was set for the usual Düsseldorf Exhibition Centre location in the same mid-January dates. But we have just learned that the association has taken a U-turn and abandoned the proposed new show.
