5CExpo is both an organiser of its own fairs and congresses and a service provider for third parties who wish to implement their own events. From concept, location check, booking to execution and controlling – we are a professional partner for (almost) all events and offer full service in the live marketing segment.
5CExpo was founded in March 2023, emerging from a management buy-out. The key individuals, including the founder Wieland Kniffka, as well as some team members, have been active in the trade fair business for over 30 years.
If you would like to contact us, please write to service(at)5cexpo.de.
Wieland Kniffka, was born in Bremen and caught the “trade fair virus” in 1993. Eager to learn more, he studied communication sciences while working his first job at a private Bremen trade fair company. Five years later, he moved to the Leipzig Trade Fair as a marketing manager’s assistant. In 2001, he founded his first trade fair company, which was sold in 2007 to the American trade fair organiser UBM Canon. Most recently, he was the head of the trade fairs and events department in a leading print media conglomerate. The event concepts developed there covered topics such as digital education, health care reform, municipal digitalisation, and residential real estate. The nationwide series “Jazz in the City” with concerts by Herbie Hancock, Nils Landgren, and others, as well as two jazz festivals, were also part of the portfolio.
Since the beginning of his career, Wieland Kniffka has been an “early adopter,” utilising digital technologies to advance his daily work and the content of events. He is also a motivating and inspiring team leader with a pragmatic hands-on mentality. He is perceived as assertive, thorough, and reliable. Throughout his career, he has held various positions in the event industry and has also lectured on event organisation.
The name 5CExpo is inspired by the “5C model” of authors Stephan Peyer and Thomas Brenzikofer. Together with MCH Group AG, Basel, Switzerland’s largest trade fair company, they published a pioneering book on this subject. In “The 5C Model – Live Marketing in the Age of Digital Communication,” the book discusses what, in our view, makes modern, successful fairs:
Commerce – Content – Community – Communication – Context
The name is our program, as these 5 Cs are central to our thinking and actions when we conceive, plan, and implement events.