Press releases

This morning, the General Meeting of Palexpo SA said goodbye to Robert Hensler, who has been chairman of the exhibition and convention centre since 2008, and to two directors, Luc Argand and Paul Muller. The shareholders also approved the 2019 annual report, which shows sales of CHF 94 million, stable compared to 2018.

After the cancellation of the GIMS 2020 due to the coronavirus and the economic consequences that ensued, the Foundation in charge of the organisation of the event requested the Canton of Geneva for financial support.

As a result of the ongoing uncertainty facing the world in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the continuing ban on gatherings of large numbers of people in Switzerland, the INDEX™20 Organisers, Palexpo and EDANA, have been reviewing the best course of action.

Sandro Mesquita will take over the management of the Geneva International Motor Show (GIMS) on 1 May 2020. He succeeds Olivier Rihs, who has left GIMS at the end of March.

The “Car of the Year” award ceremony was held in exceptional conditions at Palexpo on Monday, March 2.

Broadcast of press conferences and presentation of the world and European premieres online

By ordinance entering into force on 28^th February 2020 at 10:00 am, the Swiss Federal Council has prohibited all events bringing together more than 1’000 people.

The 90^th edition of the GIMS, which was supposed to welcome the media from next Monday and the general public from 5 to 15 March 2020, will now finally not take place.

The 48^th International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva, which was supposed to be held in Palexpo from March 25^th to March 29^th, is postponed to September. Due to the epidemic of Coronavirus striking in Asia, a very important actor of the Exhibition with a strong presence of inventions from China and Hong Kong.

The Director of the Geneva International Motor Show GIMS, Olivier Rihs, has decided to leave his post at the end of April 2020 for personal reasons.