CPHI is a monster. In a good way, of course.

Informa’s flagship European mega-expo is the world’s biggest trade show for the pharma sector, covering all aspects of development, manufacturing and supply chain. Pharma is booming, thanks to advancements in biotechnology and increased healthcare spending.

As a result, CPHI has become so huge that now only a few venues in Europe are realistically big enough to handle it – in terms not only of size of site, but also hotel accommodation and international transport links.

This year it has been Milan’s turn. Frankfurt gets the gig in 2025 and presumably the CPHI ball will be batted back and forth between them for the foreseeable future.

Side note: Deutsche Messe’s Hannover exhibition site might be the largest in the world, with a monumental 550,000 square metres surface area. But it loses out on international transport connectivity with only a small regional airport. Hannover does attract huge events with international appeal – DLG’s agricultural shows like Eurotier and Agritechnica being examples – but most of its shows are focused on the local DACH market.

Mega exposlike CPHI share a common feature – they are daunting to navigate. CPHI attracts upwards of 50,000 visitors each day. Many are first-timers, and even veterans might not know that it’s a 1km trek between the furthest halls (say 15 minutes, if the Italian coffee doesn’t tempt you into a pitstop mid-journey).

At this year’s edition there were 14 halls, the smallest of which was 15,000 square meters in size. 15,000 square meters (approximately 161,500 square feet) is hard to visualise and therefore a bit meaningless. So, think 2 soccer pitches. Or 1.25 baseball fields for you American sports fans.

Add together all 14 halls over two levels that CPHI’s 3,000 exhibitors busily filled, and it comes to nearly 230,000 sqm (2.48 million square feet) of indoor space. That’s bigger than the retail footprint of a large-sized shopping mall.

That’s by no means it in terms of the total CPHI footprint. On top of the halls, we need to add in all the peripheral space: the entrance and exit areas, the food and beverage outlets, the walkways and corridors, to name but a few.

Now we are approaching 300,000 sqms. Or approximately 3.2 million square feet. Even harder to visualise. But let’s try.

The Pentagon is the world’s second-largest office building by total floor area (apparently, it has 28 kilometers of corridors alone). The footprint of CPHI 2024 was almost half a Pentagon.

So we’re on safe ground saying CPHI is a monster, in terms of its size.

It’s this sheer size that presents challenges for organisers who want to ensure that anyone attending gets the most out of their time at the show.

Spatial anxiety and what to do about it

There is a growing body of research on what psychologists term ‘spatial anxiety’. Spatial anxiety refers to the apprehension experienced when navigating or orienting oneself in a physical space. It tends to be exacerbated in unfamiliar environments – like a mega-expo.

Studies have shown that spatial anxiety can seriously impact a person’s experience. In exhibition organizer speak, that might act as a drag on NPS (net promoter score, the go-to metric used to gauge attendee satisfaction with a show).

And it seems there is growing evidence that spatial anxiety is indeed a thing for large-scale business events. We’ve spoken to a number of the leading organisers who are reporting that they have post-event survey feedback highlighting how challenging it is to navigate the show.

As events have grown in size – as CPHI has – this problem is magnified.

Value is only generated when a visitor and an exhibitor are brought together for a meaningful conversation. When that doesn’t happen, there’s a missed revenue opportunity for the event organizer.

Then add in the discovery problem. Typically a visitor will connect with exhibitors who they know are of interest. But there will also be other exhibitors that could have proved really valuable if only the visitor had discovered them.

Research conducted by my company Crowd Connected suggests that the “cost of getting lost” – as we might term it – is substantial. The global exhibition industry may be leaving $26 billion on the table each year.

So poor wayfinding costs money. Fortunately there is a proven, readily available painkiller.

And the prescription can be neatly presented in a simple formula:

App + Map + Indoor Positioning = Blue Dot Navigation.

Think Google Maps, but indoors at the event. It’s fast becoming a ‘must have’ – the killer functionality within an event app. Which is why most of the leading app platforms now offer this as an option - and just like at CPHI, why forward-thinking organizers are rolling it out at their shows to the delight of their customers.

CPHI is a monster. But not to navigate.