All's Fair as war for business moves to conference and exhibition halls
29 Jan 2009
London - After some restless nights, Marco Siebert, head of communications for Hannover Fair 2009, is sleeping better these days as his worries over the exhibitor takeup for the mega industry event in Hannover on 20-24 April recede.
Bookings had started slowly as many companies waited for their fourth quarter results in January, before deciding on how to spend any money in the next - most likely very challenging - financial year. However, reported Siebert, as of this week, the Hannover show is on track to be sold out, with most (202,000 sq feet) of the available stand space already spoken for and around 6000 exhibitors set to attend.
The upbeat assessment for Hannover 2009 is in line with reports of record exhibitor numbers for Achema in Frankfurt 11-15 May. Likewise, UK shows such as Southern Manufacturing in Farnborough, 11-12 Feb and the new Process Engineering Live exhibition and conference, 10-11 March in Manchester, are also expecting strong showings.
"The level of interest showed that a high proportion of the industry professionals are recognising the need to get out of the office in search of new business, new markets, new suppliers and new business ideas, said a statement from the Southern Manufacturing event team.
Last year the Hannover Fair attracted 6500 exhibitors from 60 countries and 200,000 visitors - Siebert said it was too early to give meaningful guidance on visitor pre-registrations for 2009. The visitor profile for the 2008 show was 67% from Europe, 22% from Asia and just 7% from the North America.
"People realise that they need to get out and meet people, rather than just sitting at a desk. In an economic crisis the thing to do is to meet old friends and make new friends to create business, " Siebert said at a Hannover Messe 2009 press conference in London on 27 Jan.
"It would be unrealistic to say that the economic downturn has not hit us, it has. Some people are not coming because of the bad financial situation," admitted Siebert. "But where we lose people in one part of the exhibition, on the other hand other people come in because of new technologies."
Energy is the biggest draw in this regard, Siebert citing for example how wind power has grown to represent a siginficant element of the show, from almost zero five years ago. Indeed, he added, energy efficiency in industrial processes will the keynote theme of Hannover Messe 2009.
Hannover Messe 2009 will feature 13 trade shows, including a new international trade show, called "Wind". Key issues at the overall event will be automation, energy, mobility, outsourcing, and skills. The wind energy show, said Siebert, will take place next door to power transmission exhibitors, reflecting the potential synergies between energy, wind, power plant technology and motion, drive & automation.
The Hannover fair portfolio comprises INTERKAMA+, Factory Automation, Industrial Building Automation, Digital Factory, Subcontracting, Energy, Power Plant Technology, Micro Technology and Research & Technology. These annual events will be joined by Motion, Drive & Automation, Surface Technology and ComVac, which are staged at two-yearly intervals.
