5 Free Water Refill Stations at IMEX Frankfurt: A Trade Fair Case

At IMEX Frankfurt, Join the Pipe put 5 refill stations on the show floor so visitors could fill their own bottle with free water instead of picking up a disposable one. The invitation on the stand was simple: bring your bottle and help create cleaner cities.

What the refill station looked like

The photo from the hall shows one of the units: a black mobile cart with a matte black gooseneck tap on top, a drip tray on the cart top and a small rack of City Water bottles beside it. A screen on the cart reads "Your City Your Bottle" with a QR code, and the Frankfurt bottle is shown on it. The side panels carry the message "Keep calm and drink on" and "Meet us at stand F010". The cart was branded with the campaign of Messe Berlin Guest Events, whose logo and the line "free water courtesy of" sit on the signage, so the water point doubled as sponsor space for a venue partner.

Why trade fairs use refill carts

A trade fair has the same problem every day: thousands of visitors, long hours on their feet and a lot of single-use bottles at the end of the day. A refill cart gives visitors a visible place to drink and a reason to carry a reusable bottle home. It also moves with the event, because the unit stands on wheels and can be placed where visitors gather.

Regulation pushes in the same direction. The EU Single-Use Plastics Directive (2019/904) restricts disposable plastic items in catering, and large organisers increasingly ask suppliers how they will avoid handing out bottled water.

What an organiser should ask before renting

The questions are practical: how many refill points the hall needs for the expected footfall, whether the cart can carry the organiser's or a sponsor's branding, who delivers, installs and collects it, and whether branded reusable bottles are part of the package. Join the Pipe's Mobile Tap is one of the few taps that can be rented per event in Europe, and printed bottles start from a minimum of 100 units with a digital proof before production. Standard lead time is a few weeks for taps and about 10 to 15 working days for printed bottles after artwork approval.

IMEX is a returning event partner, and the same format ran at IMEX America. For other conference examples see the Booking.com Click 2024 case and the TNW mobile refill station. Planning a fair or conference? See hydration station rental for events and trade fairs, the Frankfurt City Bottle, or request a quote. One bottle sold also means one bottle donated to a school child in Africa.