The Hannover Messe, which is larger again after three years of Corona, has also attracted more visitors again. “In the five days, the 4,000 exhibitors met around 130,000 visitors from all over the world,” said the CEO of Deutsche Messe AG, Jochen Köckler, on Friday in a first review of the most important exhibition for mechanical and electrical engineering, which has been running since Monday . You can sense a spirit of optimism, “which means that there are technologies for competitive and at the same time climate-friendly industrial production”.
Last year, around 75,000 visitors came to the site in a reduced format. There were 15,000 participants in digital events. In 2020 the fair was canceled due to the pandemic. A digital version was offered in 2021. This time, too, an additional 15,000 guests attended online conferences and presentations, reported Köckler. In the time before the pandemic, there were often over 200,000 visitors in total.
Association is very satisfied
The President of the Electrical and Digital Association ZVEI and Head of the Exhibitors’ Advisory Board, Gunther Kegel, was all in all very satisfied with the level of interest this year. “The internationality and quality of the contact persons was extraordinarily high.” According to the exhibition company, the proportion of foreign guests was 43 percent – most of them from the Netherlands, China, South Korea, Poland and the USA.
Central topics were energy efficiency, more climate-friendly production, networked production and the hydrogen economy. “The knot has burst in the direction of investments in the electrical infrastructure – especially in the grid expansion in order to finally bring offshore wind energy on land,” said Kegel. “It’s making giant strides.” At the same time, a number of bureaucratic obstacles would have to be removed in Germany. Köckler commented on the status of the energy transition: “We now need speed and real determination in the implementation.”
The partner country of the fair this time was Indonesia. It is not yet clear which state will take on this role in the coming year. Great Britain had already turned down a request from the organizers for 2024 last summer. Messe AG stated that it would stay in touch and also be in contact with other countries.
It has already been decided that Canada will become a partner country in the year after next. His deputy ambassador in Germany, Isabelle Poupart, signed a corresponding declaration of intent with Köckler. The cooperation should be an expression of the close cooperation in research and development and further strengthen it. According to Messe AG, over 800 companies from Germany currently employ around 70,000 people in Canada.
