MEMORY TALKS | Gerard Rijnbeek

Segmentation of Interclean born out of necessity

In Interclean Memories we look back at many years of Interclean with colleagues, partners and friends of the show. This Memory Talks we spoke with Gerard Rijnbeek, previous Interclean team member, about the starting point of the cleaning segments at the show. “At first people were very sceptical. But after the first try and Interclean Amsterdam 2010 is was a huge success!”

Until 2008, Interclean Amsterdam was housed in and around the Europa complex (Hall 1) on the right side of the RAI. At that time, the show consisted of seven halls. The show continued to grow and was expanded to the Holland complex (Halls 10, 11 and 12) in 2008. When organising Interclean Amsterdam in 2010, this caused major problems. None of the exhibitors wanted to be in the new Holland complex, and everyone wanted to stay in their existing spot in the Europa complex.

The first cleaning segment: Washroom

I remember thinking: ‘What now?’ I was puzzling and brainstorming and then the idea of the cleaning segments came to me. At the same time companies involved in toilet applications, toilet environment and products was on the rise. We received more and more registrations from that segment and I was trying to figure out where to place them. This is how the Washroom segment was born.

Better matches: a huge success

I think it took me half a year to convince a few of the market leaders to move to the Holland complex, and to put companies with similar products together. At first people were very sceptical. But after the first try and Interclean Amsterdam 2010 is was a huge success! Exhibitors received a very targeted visits, whereas before they also received a lot of mismatches.

More and more segments

In 2012, more and more exhibitors lined up to be placed in the Washroom segment. And in all the editions after 2010 we slowly continued to create more segments, including: High Pressure, Management & Mobility Solutions and Steam Cleaning. Nowadays, these segments are still being used at the show!