DMEXCO
Annual trade fair and conference for digital marketing and advertising, held since 2009 at the Koelnmesse grounds in Köln-Deutz.
Its roots trace back to Düsseldorf, where the Online Marketing Düsseldorf (OMD) event ran from 2000 to 2008 before evolving into DMEXCO. The name stands for "Digital Marketing Expo & Conference."
Source: Wikipedia
At a glance
- Type
- Trade fair with conference for digital marketing and advertising
- Frequency
- Annually, each September
- Location
- Koelnmesse grounds, Deutz district, Innenstadt borough
- In Cologne since
- 2009
- Organizer
- Koelnmesse
- Institutional and professional sponsors
- Bundesverband Digitale Wirtschaft (BVDW) and Online-Vermarkterkreis (OVK)
- Spin-off
- DMEXCO ASIA as part of Tech Week Singapore (since 2025)
For 2024, the organizer officially reported 40,000 attendees and 680 exhibitors, yet the trade association AUMA's independent statistics list only 27,441 visitors and 507 exhibitors – a striking discrepancy between the figures.
Fair and conference combined
DMEXCO pairs an exhibition with a lecture program spread across multiple stages. For 2025, organizers reported over 40,000 attendees, more than 1,000 international speakers across 17 stages, and over 700 exhibitors and partners. The exhibition is divided into thematic zones for agencies, retail, media, and technology, plus a dedicated start-up area. Each edition carries its own motto — in 2025, "Be Bold. Move Forward."
Who takes the stage
Executives from marketing, media, and technology headline the various stages. Past speakers have included representatives from Amazon Ads, Volkswagen, ProSiebenSat.1, Nestlé, Deutsche Bank, and Google. In 2025, speakers included Carsten Maschmeyer and Michael Fichtner, Chief Information Officer of FC Bayern München.
The pandemic years
A hybrid format was originally planned for 2020, but the in-person component was canceled in July 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020 and 2021, the fair ran purely online under the title "DMEXCO @home." It only returned to the Cologne exhibition grounds in September 2022, after a nearly three-year absence. That same year, in May, the fully digital Digital Spring Summit on Web3 was held for the first time.
Good to know
Official organizer figures and independent statistics sometimes diverge: for 2024, organizers reported 40,000 attendees and 680 exhibitors and partners, while AUMA's statistics list 27,441 visitors and 507 exhibitors. Alongside Arbeitsgemeinschaft Online Forschung, Art Directors Club für Deutschland, and IAB Europe, several other industry associations count among the official partners. Beyond the fair itself, DMEXCO also runs its own podcast.
Timeline
- 2000Predecessor trade fair Online Marketing Düsseldorf (OMD) launches
- 2008OMD ends as predecessor of DMEXCO
- 2009DMEXCO takes place in Cologne for the first time
- 201911th edition: around 1,000 exhibitors, 38,000 visitors
- 2020DMEXCO @home held as fully digital event due to Covid
- 2021Second digital DMEXCO @home event
- 2022Return to Cologne after three-year pandemic break
- 2025Launch of DMEXCO ASIA as part of Tech Week Singapore
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Auto-generated, last verified: 2026-09-25
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