Achema shows how it's done

Later this month over 200,000 visitors are expected to descend on the trade exhibition fairground in Frankfurt to attend the 27th Achema.

In chemical and process engineering terms, this exhibition has long been considered as the place to do business. More than 4000 suppliers to the global process industries are putting their products and services on display in the world's biggest shop window of its kind. But, apart from its sheer size, why is Achema so special?

Well, for a start, it's been around longer than most. A lifespan of 27 years for most UK industrial trade fairs is a rarity indeed - shows waxing and waning with the economic cycles of the industries they strive to serve - but this year's Achema is not even its 27th year. Achema only comes around every three years, so this venerable event dates back to the 1920s and the early days of its organising body Dechema, the German trade association for the chemical and process industries.

Although the UK has had process industry-sponsored shows for many years (from organisations such as the PPMA, BVAMA, BPMA, for example), none have been able to match Achema's pulling power in the international arena. To put this into perspective, over 300 UK companies are exhibiting at Frankfurt this month - a number that would do justice to most shows at Birmingham's NEC, but one that is still under 10 per cent of the total number of exhibitors at Achema.

Emphasising Achema's international appeal, Prof Gerhardt Kreysa, Dechema's chief executive, says 'in 2000, the percentage of foreign [non-German] exhibitors was 37.7 per cent, and I am sure that we will reach 40 per cent this year.'

Its three-yearly cycle also arguably makes Achema better suited to reflect the true rate of change in chemical and process engineering technologies. As Kreysa puts it, 'in contrast to other fairs, Achema has a highly innovative character, and there are limits to the speed at which innovation advances. The three-year cycle is a healthy rhythm.'

And it has to be said that even in the faster growing areas of process technologies, such as biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, Achema appears not to be at any disadvantage because of its triennial frequency. This year a separate biotechnology exhibitor group focuses attention on the equipment front, while an international biotechnology conference - featuring several Nobel Prize laureates as keynote speakers - confirms Achema's standing as an international venue for the exchange of information on leading-edge technologies.

So, what does make Achema so special? In no particular order, the answer would have to include its size, content, relevance and reputation. But there is another factor - one well known to any exhibition organiser. Call it the 'visitor factor', that critical mass of people that has to come through the doors each day to convince exhibitors they are having a 'good' show. With attendances always in the hundreds of thousands, Achema has never been anything less than a 'great' show.