The 1950s were a decade of conformity; the 1960s were a time of disruption, with the introduction of the miniskirt, space travel, pop art, the influencer, and so much more. In this article, you will learn about the history of trade shows in the 1960s. For reference, you can visit the History of Trade Shows in the 1940s and 1950s
It was a decade of the upheaval of political, cultural, and artistic norms and the Vietnam War.
The space race between the USSR and the US, the assassinations of Presidents Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., and the civil rights struggle were all significant stories in this decade, with global ramifications.
The 1962 World Expo in Seattle, titled “Man in the Space Age” captured the zeitgeist of the time.
The staggering number of visitors, 9 million visitors, with only 49 exhibitors, made this particular Expo interesting. That’s a whopping 183,674 visitors per booth.
Political aims were still top of mind at this expo. As the USSR had sent a rocket into space, the USA used the Expo to demonstrate the contributions of science and technology to the American way of life and the determination to win the space race. Finally, on 20 July 1969, the USA did when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon for the first time.
The Fair had five key areas:
Some of the ideas from the future that were shown were the home and car of the future, an electronic library (before the Kindle), future communications in space, and a TV that was as big as a wall.
The World Expos always leave behind buildings that will be remembered in the cities that host them long after the Expo is over.
A case in point is the Space Needle, which was designed by John Graham and has a revolving restaurant at the top that is reached by external lifts that were designed to mimic space capsules.
Two other architectural buildings have been repurposed since the Expo, the Key Arena, and the Pacific Science Centre.
Also Read: History of Trade Shows in the 1930s
Notably, IBM exhibited its first computers at the Seattle World Expo. The IBM 650 and 730 took up significant floor space and used punch cards to run administrative data processing.
The 1960s also saw the solidification of the multinational corporation that began in the 1950s. A company is considered a multinational if it has more than two offices and places of business in countries other than its home country. The first multinational was the East India Company, set up in 1600 with a royal charter from Queen Elizabeth. For the next 2 centuries, companies were given royal charters in order to operate. It was only in 1844 that companies in Britain became regulated by courts. In the US courts of 1886, it was recognised that a corporation (company) is a “natural person” under the law.
Around the world, exhibitions, fairs, and trade shows represent the interests of companies, multinationals, and corporations with the goal of getting more business. Understanding the path companies have taken from an idea of a person to a large company decades later informs what would interest them when developing events.
The seeds of the current EU were sown in 1962, with the common agricultural policy giving EEC countries control over their own food production.
A year later, the six EEC member countries of Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany signed the Yaoundé Convention of trade with 18 former colonies, which formed the basis for the current 79 countries from the Caribbean, Africa, and the Pacific.
1965 saw the merger of three communities, the European Coal and Steel Community, the European Economic Community, and Euratom, into the Merger Treaty, which resulted in a single administrative arm, – The Commission and the executive arm – The Council.
This made trade and the setting up specialised exhibitions inevitable as the competition moved to different cities.
The Fair Trade Organisation was founded in 1964 to address the disparities between countries in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were created to provide advice, support, and assistance to disadvantaged producers located in third-world countries.
This translated into the first United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) held in Delhi in 1968 with the theme “Trade no Aid”.
The 1960s also saw the beginning of more specialised exhibitions. The first of which was Floriade 1960, which was held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Historically, Holland and tulips are synonymous. However, all flowers bloom in Rotterdam, where one can trace the billion-dollar global flower industry that is central to Holland to the first Floriade.
The specialisation exhibition trend continued with the launch of EuroShop in 1966, which became the retail industry trade fair displaying visual merchandising, store design, mannequins, and so much more. When it started, there were only 331 exhibitors. Now, the event has nearly 2,300 exhibitors and 110,000 attendees every three years.
1968 was the touchstone year for the current event industry when exhibition stands that were built by carpenters, artists, and artisans became easier to build and more streamlined. German inventor Hans Staeger exhibited his revolutionary concept of Shell Schemes at Euroshop in Düsseldorf. What was originally designed for stores quickly made the leap to become the cornerstone of most exhibitions and trade shows around the world.
1967 was a watershed year for legal changes, including the decriminalisation of homosexuality, the legalisation of abortion, and the legalisation of the pill for unmarried women. Marching on from there in 1968 saw the end of censorship in theatres, which led to the opening of Hair in the West End the following day.
The British Invasion began in 1960 with the British Trade Fair held in New York. The pavilion built for the Design Centre London, which would later become the Design Council, championed ‘great British design that improves lives and makes things better.”
The Beatles, James Bond, Michael Caine as Harry Palmer in the anti-James Bond movie series, Jean Shrimpton, Twiggy, the Rolling Stones, Carnaby Street, Biba, and so much more set the stage globally for British style and influence.
The 1964 New York World’s Fair had 140 pavilions, 110 restaurants representing 80 countries, 24 US states, and nearly 50 corporations, with 52 million visitors, short of the expected 70 million.
Kodak displayed the world’s largest outdoor image at their display. See below.
Du Pont, the chemical company, showcased their polyester fabric and other innovations.
This aerial view gives you an idea of the scale of the World Fair and the level of investment for an event that ran through the summer months of 1963 and 1964.
For some of the pavilions, plain structural shells were decorated and adorned with a building method because they were only meant to last for two years and would be torn down after that not much different from shell schemes.
The 1960s saw numerous innovative trade shows that set the stage, combined with political will and legislation, to create new industries, such as computers, or grow old ones, like the flower industry.
But all was not rosy in the decade with the Charles Mason murders, the construction of the Berlin Wall, the Baader-Meinhof gang, the election of Richard Nixon, the oil crisis, the early deaths of Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and Jim Hendrix due to drug overdoses, and the Red Brigade.
During the 1960s, there were many important art shows, such as the first Pop Art show, early Jackson Pollock shows, and the rise of photography as art, which could be seen at the Terence Donovan show in London.
April 7, 1964, was the day the first microchip was created. These were needed to reduce the size of computers that took up floors, making them smaller and smaller until today, when a computer is in your phone.
Las Vegas conference centre quickly solidified its place as a destination convention centre with the launch of the Consumer Technology Association’s annual trade show in 1967. The event showcased new technology and products, video games, virtual entertainment, and much more. It became one of the largest shows, taking up to 18 days to set up, run, and break down.
The patent for the mouse was filed in 1967 and launched at what became known as “The Mother of all Demos” where they showed the first computer mouse. Inventor Doug Engelbart said, “We’re calling this a mouse for the moment. I’m sure somebody will come up with a better name”.
Kind + Jugend in Germany was the first trade show in 1960 that focused on children. In 2019 it had 1,288 exhibiting companies from 55 countries, with around 24,000 trade visitors. It created an innovation award, of which one of the 2019 winners was the Jiffle Wagon.
We will later explore the innovation of incorporating awards as part of a trade show instead of standalone events.
We’ve focused on Europe and the States up until now, but one geographic area that started to increase its trade show footprint was Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong Trade Fair held in the late 1960s had over 2 million visitors. Hong Kong has been seen as both a way to get to China and a major place to trade for hundreds of years.
Read Next: History of Tradeshows in the 1970s
