Hannover Fair Doubles Up Biennial Shows
Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 7/19/2004
Deutsche Messe, organizer of the multi-sector Hannover Fair — World Trade Fair for Automation & Industrial Technology, will turn two of the event's biennial components into annual affairs.
Both Factory Automation and INTERKAMA+ will now be held annually with Digital Factory, all during the Hannover Fair, scheduled next for April 11–15, 2005.
INTERKAMA+ (process automation) and Digital Factory (information technology solutions for manufacturing and processing) joined Factory Automation in Hannover for the first time in 2004. According to Joachim Schafer, president of Hannover Fairs USA, after this initial grouping, the original plan was to alternate Factory Automation and INTERKAMA+ each year with the annual Digital Factory. But with a combined 1,600 exhibitors, 737,000 square feet of display area and 150,000 attendees, the initial sector pairing was so successful that Deutsche Messe decided to retain the annual combination as the core Automation World element of the larger Hannover Fair.
"The exhibitors and attendees wanted the shows held every year," said Schafer. He said the industries represented by the shows had been seen as separate traditionally, but more and more both vendors and consumers deal in newer hybrid systems that encompass both industries.
He added that surveys indicated the parallel presentation of process and production automation solutions really appealed to attendees, while exhibitors reported significant increases in contacts with qualified professionals at the initial combination of shows.
Schafer said he expects attendance at the shows in 2005 to top 200,000, with more than 800 companies exhibiting in Factory Automation and about 500 in INTERKAMA+.
