Report from Hannover: Seeking an attendance bump at Hannover Fair
By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 4/22/2009 12:00:00 AM
| Control Engineering editorial director David Greenfield, Consulting-Specifying Engineer editor Michael Ivanovich, and Plant Engineering editor Bob Vavra will be reporting from Hannover Messe this week on the new ideas and new technologies from the 2009 event. |
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Hannover, Germany – Day 2 at the 2009 Hannover Fair could be a pivotal one for this year’s event. Day 1 attendance, while impressive by just about any other standard in the U.S., was down noticeably from last year. That show preceded the sharp drop in the economy which has fueled so much concern at this year’s event.
Solid traffic, busy product managers
In major automation booths such as ABB, Phoenix Contact and Siemens, traffic has been constant and solid, with product managers staying busy at all times. Still no one is suggesting that the opening day traffic would signal that the fair would attract the anticipated 250,000 attendees
Exports for manufacturing
Every major political and business leader speaking at this year’s show has acknowledged the economic challenges, but all have encouraged a continued outreach to exports and growth for the manufacturing sector.
Fair organizers Deutsche Messe and the b2fair European networking initiative are actively promoting international partnerships at the fair. International partnerships
"Companies have realized that now is the time to seek out the opportunities afforded by international partnerships," says Jürgen Schäfer of Handwerk International, one of the co-founders of b2fair.
Concerned about manufacturing economics? Also read, from MBT: Next imperative:
Economy drives manufacturers to go lean; outsource more non-core functions
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| Other RBI coverage at Hannover Fair 2009: - Report from Hannover: innovations, efficiency - Wind in the sails for Hermes Award winner. |
– By Bob Vavra, editor, Plant Engineering, and edited by Mark T. Hoske, Reed Business Information, www.mbtmag.com
