Hannover Messe tries 'pay-per-view' ... UK unis stay away
10 Dec 2009
London – Among a raft of innovations being lined up for Hannover Messe in Hannover, Germany, 19-23 April 2010, is a guided tour system whereby groups of visitors to the exhibition will be brought along to the stands most relevant to the profile given in their registration details.
As well as saving the legwork, the system offers a welcome introduction in terms of helping both visitors and exhibitors to get maximum value from attending the event.
However, there is a catch: exhibitors will have to pay a fee to get onto the tour map. While the costs are unlikely to worry major exhibitors, visitors could, it seems, miss out on the promising technologies on offer from smaller companies that opt out of this particular service.
In response to such concerns, Wolfgang Pech, senior vice president, Hannover Messe, emphasised that the guided tour initiative is a pilot scheme, adding that any lessons learnt during the 2010 show would be taken on board.
Indeed, a more pressing issue mentioned by Pech was the absence of any UK representatives from the estimated 400 research facilities, universities and colleges exhibiting at the Research & Technology Fair within the Hannover show.
The section offers a platform for knowledge transfer between industry and science. It is designed to attract researchers, developers and designers from every area of industry, towards bringing R&D-driven innovation together with potential users.
UK universities, suggested Pech, often lack the budgets and support to market their ideas, while some professors don’t see the need to market their research. He added that German universities were far ahead in this regard, and, not surprisingly, would take up a majority of the stand space in this section of the exhibition.
For 2010, the Research & Technology Fair will include categories such as: Microsystems, Applied research; Future technologies; Applied research; Technology transfer; and Research services. Technology topics, meanwhile, will include organic electronics, bionics, adaptronics and technical textiles.
Billed as the world’s leading showcase for industrial technology, Hannover Messeis staged annually, focusing on industrial automation, energy, technology, industrial subcontracting and other cutting-edge technologies. The 2010 event encompasses nine flagship fairs: Industrial Automation, Energy, Power Plant Technology, MobiliTec, Digital Factory, Industrial Supply, CoilTechnica, MicroNanoTec, Research & Technology.
