Einleitung
For HR and recruiting technology in Germany, Zukunft Personal Europe is one of the places where ATS vendors, job boards and HR teams share the same halls. In September 2025 the fair celebrated its 25th anniversary at Koelnmesse in Cologne, and Kini's co-founder Fabian Scheib took the train there for conversations.
This throwback covers what the fair was, what Kini did there, and what the organiser and the trade press took away from it. Kini did not publish its own recap, so the observations below are attributed to their sources.
TL;DR
- Zukunft Personal Europe (ZPE) 2025 took place from 9 to 11 September 2025 at Koelnmesse in Cologne, organised by CloserStill Media Germany.
- It was the fair's 25th anniversary, under the motto "Time for new beginnings". The organiser reported 25,897 participants, 669 exhibitors, 704 sessions and 662 speakers.
- Kini attended as a visitor: co-founder and CEO Fabian Scheib travelled to Cologne on 10 September 2025 for conversations with people from the industry.
- The organiser named artificial intelligence as the top theme. Haufe's report saw fewer future visions and more concrete use cases and products.
- Organiser material lists ATS and HR platforms Kini integrates with, including Personio, rexx systems, Workday and softgarden, alongside job boards such as Indeed and Jobware.
What was Zukunft Personal Europe 2025?
Zukunft Personal Europe is the Cologne edition of the Zukunft Personal HR fairs, run by CloserStill Media Germany. The 2025 fair took place from 9 to 11 September 2025 at Koelnmesse and marked its 25th anniversary. The motto was "Time for new beginnings".
The exhibition was organised around four focus areas: Recruiting & Attraction, Learning & Development, Organisational Performance and Corporate Health. In its final press release of 15 September 2025, the organiser called the attendance a record result for the anniversary year.
| ZPE 2025 at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 9–11 September 2025 |
| Venue | Koelnmesse, Cologne, three halls |
| Organiser | CloserStill Media Germany |
| Participants | 25,897 |
| Exhibitors | 669 |
| Sessions and speakers | 704 sessions, 662 speakers |
Figures are from the organiser's final press release. The trade press reported different figures, so we use the organiser's.
Who from Kini was at ZPE 2025?
Fabian Scheib, Kini's co-founder and CEO, went as a visitor. On 10 September 2025, the fair's second day, he posted on LinkedIn from the ICE to Cologne, with what he called the obligatory train selfie:
Ich bin wieder auf dem Weg nach Köln zur ZPE und freue mich auf viele spannende Gespräche
Fabian Scheib on LinkedIn, 10 September 2025
"I'm on my way to Cologne for ZPE again and looking forward to lots of interesting conversations." (translated from German)
The post mentions no booth and no talk. The trip was about meeting people from recruiting and HR tech, and Fabian asked his network who he should not miss.
The word "again" fits. Fabian and co-founder Julia Komkowski announced a joint visit to the 2023 edition, and in September 2026 Fabian wrote that he is at ZPE "wie jedes Jahr", every year.
What stood out at ZPE 2025?
These observations come from the organiser and from Haufe's trade press report, not from Kini.
AI moved from vision to product. The organiser named artificial intelligence as the top theme, from how work is organised to leadership, legal questions and data management. Haufe's report of 12 September 2025 observed that the talk on the stands was less about future visions and more about concrete use cases and products.
Recruiting drew the crowds. According to Haufe, the Recruiting & Attraction and Learning & Development areas were especially busy, and demand was high for software that promises efficiency and cost savings.
Job boards felt the hiring slowdown. In the organiser's release, Anna Steinhagen, communications manager at Jobware, described the pressure on classic job boards:
Viele unserer Kunden haben Neueinstellungen deutlich zurückgefahren – ein branchenübergreifendes Problem.
Zukunft Personal final press release, 15 September 2025
"Many of our customers have significantly cut back on new hires, a problem across industries." (translated from German)
Vendors are repositioning. In the same release, XING said it had sharpened its profile towards recruiting solutions, and Personio said it presented a new payroll product and its AI assistant.
Why does a fair like ZPE matter for recruiting integrations?
Because the systems that have to exchange data are in the same halls. The organiser's pre-fair release for ZPE 2025 named ATS and HR platforms such as Personio, rexx systems, Workday, softgarden, GuideCom and HR4YOU. On the channel side it named Indeed, XING, meinestadt.de and Jobware. d.vinci won the HR Innovation Award in the Recruiting & Attraction category.
Kini has connectors for these ATS and HR platforms, from Personio to Workday, and Kini Shop distributes job ads to boards including Indeed. Kini is a managed connectivity layer for recruiting: jobs go out of the ATS to the channels, applications come back into the ATS with a sync status on every record, and Kini runs monitoring, retries, recovery and connector maintenance as an ongoing service. The difference from a unified API is explained in Managed Recruiting Connectivity, a category explained.
For an ATS platform, a job board or an agency, a walk through Cologne is a good reminder of how many connections sit behind a single job ad.
with your stack?
Where can you find the official ZPE 2025 material?
- Zukunft Personal Europe: the organiser's event page, now pointing to the next edition.
- Zukunft Personal press area: press releases, including the 2025 final report (German).
- Final press release ZPE 2025: numbers, award winners and exhibitor voices (PDF, German).
- Haufe: Zukunft Personal Europe trotzt der Krise: trade press report from the fair (German).
What came after ZPE 2025?
The next Zukunft Personal Europe took place from 15 to 17 September 2026 in Cologne, and Fabian was back on the first day. If you are working on connecting an ATS with job boards or agencies, you do not have to wait for the next fair: book a demo with Kini.
