News

Germany - GIFA 2011 - Bigger than ever before.

Issued at 2011-05-23



It is apparent that the four metal trade fairs GIFA, METEC, THERMPROCESS and NEWCAST will be setting a new exhibitor record this year, say the organisers. Messe Düsseldorf reports there has been a particularly large increase in the space booked at the Düsseldorf trade fairs.

While the companies presented their products and services on a total of 72,698 square metres of exhibition space in 2007, when the present record was set at the top of the economic boom, the trend in 2011 is definitely towards larger stands. Something that the trade fair project director Friedrich-Georg Kehrer is very pleased about: “We didn’t expect this. Everyone in our industry thought that the exhibitors would come, but with substantially smaller stands. The bookings made to date reveal, however, that the trade fairs have grown considerably, by almost 5,000 square metres.” 77,230 square metres had been booked by companies at the time of going to press.

Messe Düsseldorf already responded to exhibitors’ requests for larger stand areas a number of months ago and made another, larger hall (Hall 3) available for METEC – and the space there is almost fully booked. The four technology trade fairs are now being held in Halls 3 to 17.

The registration figures also reflect the actual situation of the industry, where not all companies have survived the crisis completely unscathed. Most companies want and are in a position to be represented at the trade fair, which is also why the registration figures are almost as high as at the previous event, but the crisis has led to a number of corporate mergers between foundry equipment suppliers. The number of exhibitors has therefore decreased slightly from 793 in 2007 to 723 companies (at the time of going to press). The exhibitors are not willing to compromise on space, however and have booked about 42,000 square metres (2007: 43,800) in Halls 10 to 13 and 15 to 17 on the exhibition site in Düsseldorf, even though fewer companies are exhibiting.

It looks like a new record for both the number of exhibitors and the amount of space booked will be set at METEC: 18.4% more companies will be represented, while the stand space booked has increased by more than 34.6%. With 437 exhibitors and almost 20,000 square metres of space, the trade fair is bigger than ever before.

The number of companies registering for THERMPROCESS is considerably higher than in 2007 too: about 300 exhibitors and more than 9,500 square metres of space booked. The trade fair will as a result have more exhibitors this year than ever before in its 37-year history.

The most recent addition to the ‘Bright World of Metals’ – NEWCAST – has also made good progress, demonstrating that it now holds an established position. It was launched in 2003 with 255 exhibitors, around 300 foundries will be presenting their products and services to visitors on almost 6,000 square metres of stand space this year. NEWCAST is the most international event in the industry – 78% of the exhibitors do not come from Germany; but rather from the neighbouring European countries and from overseas. Brazil, China, India, South Africa and the USA are playing particularly prominent roles here.

Popular portals

The number of visits and page impressions recorded by the trade fair portals is another major indication that the events will be a success. The websites www.gifa.de, www.metec.de, www.thermprocess.de and www.newcast.de are registering steady increases in the number of visits, which confirms the popularity of the trade fair portals. They are being used by international trade visitors to plan their visit to the trade fairs as effectively as possible. The exhibitor database, for example, is a detailed search engine than enables very specific searches to be made for companies that supply individual solutions. Daily news from the industries, everything that is worth knowing about the extensive side programme arranged for the trade fairs and brief information about the trade fairs round off the wide-ranging content provided by the trade fair portals. Friedrich-Georg Kehrer: “The tremendous interest visitors are showing in our internet presence demonstrates that it is essential for many experts to visit GIFA, METEC, THERMPROCESS and NEWCAST and that they therefore want to make comprehensive preparations in advance before they come to the trade fairs in Düsseldorf.” The app for the four trade fairs is available free of charge in the app store with immediate effect too.

Buy on-line to save money

E-tickets for admission to the trade fairs are a new service successfully introduced this year by Messe Düsseldorf at boot Düsseldorf. They can be printed out conveniently at home or at the workplace and can be used as tickets for buses and trains within a radius of about 40 kilometres around Düsseldorf throughout the Rhine-Ruhr transport district when travelling to the exhibition site in the city. Another advantage of the e-tickets is they cost considerably less than at the ticket offices on the exhibition site. A day ticket costs €40.00 when purchased off the websitr, for example, compared to €50.00 at the ticket office, while a ticket for the whole of the event costs €100.00 compared to €120.00 at the ticket office. The four trade fairs are open daily from 10.00am to 6pm from 28 June to 2 July 2011.


Source: Messe Düsseldorf



Related News