As the organizer of the ZOW events, SURVEY has made a name for itself far beyond the boundaries of the Eastern Westphalia region in Germany. The company was founded in Bielefeld in Eastern Westphalia in 1992 by Peter H. Meyer. The initial focus was on market, product and service analyses along with corporate consulting. SURVEY started up the ZOW supplier trade show in 1995, and its unique workshop concept has now been exported to Italy, Spain, Russia and China with great success. Today, the letters ZOW stand for flagship events where suppliers to the furniture and interior decoration industries have an opportunity to get together.

When SURVEY was ten years old in January 2003, the original company name was changed to SURVEY Marketing + Consulting GmbH & Co. KG. At the time, the company was in the process of adapting to changing business conditions and refocusing its activities following the expansion of the event program at the European level. Expansion had gotten under way back in 2001 when ZOW was staged in Pordenone in northern Italy. The company established the FurniFab Furniture Fabric Show in Poznan (Poland), the E3S European Solid Surface Show in Bad Salzuflen and the Focus Küche & Bad (Kitchen & Bath) show in Enger-Besenkamp (both in Germany) as well as ZOW events in Madrid (Spain), Moscow (Russia), Shanghai (China) and from 2008 on in Istanbul (Turkey). All of the fairs have a regional scope and attract considerable international attention. They are exclusively based on the highly communicative ZOW workshop approach which offers all-inclusive service to exhibitors and visitors.

In addition to its B2B activities, the company also provides consulting services to industry associations and organizations with the support of the affiliate PH Meyer Wirtschaftsberatung, which is also located in Bielefeld and which specializes in corporate public relations and a full range of services for industry associations.

Together with its affiliates and subsidiaries, the SURVEY group achieved a turnover of 20 million euros in 2005. There are currently 18 employees working in the company headquarters team in Bielefeld. Peter H. Meyer (*1950) is the managing partner. Before founding SURVEY in 1992, he held high-level marketing and sales positions at a well-known furniture company and worked an additional seven years in marketing and export at a leading wooden materials company.