EMO Hannover 2007, 17 to 22 September. End of show EMO Hannover 2007: Top marks from exhibitors and visitors
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Flagship metalworking show generates orders in the billions. More visitors despite shorter run
22 September 2007 – Smiling faces all around: the six-day EMO Hannover 2007 exhibition ended on Saturday to a shower of accolades. More exhibitors, more visitors, more international flair. "And this, despite our having shortened the exhibition by two days," enthused Dr. Detlev Elsinghorst, General Commissioner of EMO Hannover 2007.
166 000 visitors came to Hannover, Germany between the dates of 17 and 22 September to buy machines, place orders and find out about the latest developments in the world of metalworking. This represented an increase of 4 percent over the previous event two years ago, when EMO still ran for a total of eight days. Even the number of exhibitors - 2,118 exhibitors from 42 different nations - was up five percent, and the amount of occupied floor space was also up by 12 percent, reaching a total volume of 180,000 net square meters.
Just two days, exhibitors were already elated. As Dr. Marc Fleckenstein, Head of Product Management at the Schwarzenbek-based Fette GmbH put it: "This trade fair has been a dream." Michael Jochem, Head of Machine Tool Sales at Bosch Rexroth, added: "We drew a lot of visitor traffic at our stand and had many excellent business talks."
Bulging order books
EMO Hannover 2007 gave the international machine tool sector an enormous shot in the arm. According to the official exhibitor survey, this year's EMO show generated an order volume of 4 billion euros. More than half of all exhibitors were anticipating a positive influence on subsequent German and European sales.
The general mood was captured in the following remarks: "Gildemeister experienced an additional upswing in orders at this event," reported Dr. Rüdiger Kapitza, Chairman of the Management Board of Gildemeister, the biggest exhibitor at EMO. "Compared with the previous EMO, we netted twice the number of orders," stated Gerhard Glanz from the Austria-based EMCO Maier Croup. And Dieter Kollmar, Managing Director of the EMAG company in Salach summed it up like this: "The number of orders we received during the show was way up compared with 2005."
The general assessment among EMO exhibitors was correspondingly positive. Over two thirds of them were more than satisfied with the run of the show. As Dr. Klaus Finkenwirth, Managing Director at Liebherr Verzahntechnik in Kempten, put it: "This is the best show I ever experienced." An additional plus consisted of exhibitors being able to reach all their key industrial target groups, especially automotive manufacturers and subcontractors, the mechanical engineering industry and the entire spectrum of metalworking and metal processing.
EMO Hannover asserts leading role
Other important indicators for the leading role enjoyed by EMO Hannover were also up, including the percentage of visitors from outside Germany. Over 37 percent of trade visitors came from abroad, from a total of 80 different nations. Commensurate with the high level of European demand for machine tools, the number of visitors from Western Europe was up sharply, particularly from Switzerland, France, Italy, Sweden and Austria. The biggest contingents of visitors from overseas were from India and the United States.
The number of attending executives rose to nearly 60 percent of overall attendance. As Ruben Baranowski, Managing Director at Iscar Germany, noted: "All the key decision-makers were present here." And a considerably higher percentage of attendees enjoyed purchasing authority at their companies compared with the prior event in 2005.
Exhibitors' perception of EMO as a unique forum for winning new customers was reinforced again this year, with over a third of all visitors attending EMO Hannover for the first time ever. "This year brought us visits by interested parties with whom we had had no previous contact, and some of them are even considering closing deals with us before the show is over. This is a completely new phenomenon and would be fantastic," he enthused.
Visitors turn to EMO for tangible, best-fit solutions
International trade visitors expect EMO to offer them technological solutions to enhance their competitiveness. "Our visitors, many of them brand new leads this year, showed a marked interest in finding complete solution approaches", reported Dr. Roland Ruppel, Managing Director of Zimmer + Kreim in Brensbach.
As the leading innovations forum for the metalworking industry, EMO Hannover 2007 showcased a wide variety of innovations which are now market-ready following their unveiling at the previous event. One problem which was addressed in a number of new solutions this year involved the reduction of incidental time. Many machine tool manufacturers have for example considerably reduced the time required for tool changing or now provide advance simulations of the setup procedure, considerably reducing machine overheads as a result.
And the integration of control systems into the manufacturing process was another hot topic at this year's show. This year machine tool manufacturers teamed up with software providers to present brand new approaches to enhancing customer productivity by optimizing the production process in terms of criteria such as production time or surface quality.
Meanwhile the international technical symposium entitled "Intelligent Lightweight Design" focused on a key new trend: Leading experts discussed the different aspects of innovative, lightweight design from the standpoint of the customer as well as providers of production equipment. According to Christian Rau from the Kyocera Fineceramics company based in Esslingen: "The informational value of the individual lectures was very high, and their concise format is also deserving of praise. We went away with a number of useful ideas."
Huge turnout at EMO's special pavilion for next-generation engineers
This year's EMO was once again a major draw for young people considering careers in technical fields. "Limited capacities forced us to put a cap on all the requests for appointments that kept pouring in," explained Peter Bole, in charge of the special youth pavilion. Some 10,000 young people from vocational and general schools flocked to EMO in such of inspiration and information on possible careers and job opportunities in the machine tool sector. 24 participating firms and organizations were on hand at the pavilion in Hall 25 to give young people a close-up look at today's metalworking technologies, sharing insight on everything from high-tech machinery to control units, software development and automation. The showcase was augmented by practical advice and job opportunities posted online at www.karriere-im-maschinenbau.org, plus orientation provided by organizations such as the Federal Employment Agency (Ministry of Education and Research and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce.
A show of superlatives
This year's EMO received special honors thanks to the involvement of Federal President Horst Köhler in the opening event. Exhibitors took his presence and words as a very positive sign of government support for and recognition of the importance of manufacturing technologies and industrial SMEs. "We are highly appreciative of the remarks made by Federal President Horst Köhler on the significance of our industry in his opening speech," emphasized Dr. Dieter Kress, Managing Partner at Mapal in Aalen, Germany.
"At this EMO, everything was simply perfect," summarized General Commissioner Elsinghorst. "The global economy is booming, exhibitor satisfaction is immense and visiting professionals were clearly in a buying mood. EMO has resoundingly underscored its reputation as the world's largest and most important showcase for metalworking technology, and its reputation among exhibitors and visitors alike has soared to even greater heights. Last but certainly not least, we were very honored by Federal President Köhler's contribution to our cause at the opening ceremony."
The next EMO will take place from 5 to 10 October 2009 in Milan, Italy.
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