Deutsche Messe, the organizers of Hannover Messe, the world's largest industrial technology trade fair, which for the last few years has incorporated the Interkama Exhibition and attracted 150,000 visitors this year, are adding "Industrial Automation North America" to their international expansion plans. This new show will be held September 12-15, 2012, alongside the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) at McCormick Place in Chicago. Industrial Automation North America will showcase products and solutions for production automation, complementing the IMTS focus on machine tools, metalworking and precision manufacturing. The move stems from a strategic alliance with AMT—The Association for Manufacturing Technology, the organizer of IMTS. The September date is likely to introduce a significant conflict with the dates of the ISA Automation Week for 2012: This week the ISA announced the dates for the 2011 Automation week as 17-20 October, in Mobile, Alabama.
Wolfgang Lenarz, Senior Vice President at Deutsche Messe AG, added, "Industrial Automation North America is a continuation of our international expansion strategy. In 2009 we produced a total of 31 events outside of Germany that collectively hosted 12,131 exhibiting companies and 1.14 million visitors. With the signing of this agreement, we will have events in Australia, Brazil, China, India, Russia, Turkey, the UAE and the USA."
Previous German shows in the USA
Jim Pinto reminds us that the last such sally into the U.S. exhibition market by a major German show organizer was in May 2005 by the SPS/IPC/Drives show, from Nuremberg, right in the heart of the automobile and machine building industries in South Germany. This was not a success, and no further shows have been scheduled in the United States, but it will be interesting to see whether Hannover Messe gains a better result, or whether the major suppliers consider that the user-group meeting format is still the right answer for 2012.
Exhibitions combine to survive
In Germany, at the Munich trade fair center this month, Messe München International (MMI) had a successful premiere to IFAT ENTSORGA, an amalgamation of their international fair for water and sewage management with an environmental and recycling management event. Around 110,000 visitors, 40% from outside Germany, attended. From level and flow instrumentation specialists Nivus GmbH, managing partner Udo Steppe said, "The people who came to our stand were exclusively trade professionals—there to find out specifically about new developments." Tibor Winkler from Nivelco in Hungary commented "The best show I have discovered for two decades. We used to attend Interkama, but this is better. We went to introduce some analytical instruments, but there was a lot of interest in level and flow. There is just one hall for instrumentation, and the booths are smaller, even for the larger exhibitors like Endress + Hauser. All halls were busy. People came with a specific application in mind." MMI organizes similar events in Asia, Russia, the Middle East and South America.
