Planning security for presence trade fair

"Due to the persistently high incidence rates in Germany and many neighboring countries, we have decided together with our exhibitors to postpone the Hannover Messe to early summer this year. Last year, we discovered that the summer months are best suited for major events during the pandemic. Since we cannot currently assume that the corona situation will have eased sufficiently by April, we are offering our customers the greatest possible planning security with the early postponement to present their innovations at the world's most important industrial trade fair," says Dr. Jochen Köckler, Chairman of the Board of Management of Deutsche Messe AG.

The Hannover Messe will be the world's first major industrial trade fair in June and, with its focus on digitalization and sustainability, will provide clear impetus for innovative, efficient production and climate protection. Due to the high capacity utilization of the exhibition grounds in Hanover with numerous events in June, the world's leading trade fair for industry will have to be shortened to four days this year. In 2023, Hannover Messe will take place again as usual over five days in April.

"It is right to postpone the Hannover Messe to a later date. This will further increase the vaccination rate, which is in the interests of exhibitors and visitors to the trade fair. In addition, a later event date means a higher probability of attracting more national and international visitors - which benefits everyone involved. The mechanical and plant engineering industry will present itself in Hanover as a technological enabler of climate protection and digitalization, as well as highlighting its role as a provider and user of cutting-edge technology for networked and intelligent production," says VDMA Managing Director Thilo Brodtmann.

More national and international audience

"As the world's most important industrial trade fair, Hannover Messe is the showcase to the world for our companies. The postponement is therefore the right decision under the given circumstances. We are convinced that we will be able to reach a larger audience in the summer for the topics surrounding Industry 4.0 and its contributions to sustainability. With our innovations in the areas of digitalization, electrification, energy efficiency and automation, the electrical and digital industry is shaping the industrial transformation towards a climate-neutral circular economy. We want to demonstrate what this path can look like to as wide an audience as possible. After all, we can only master this challenge by working together. The Hannover Messe offers the perfect setting for this," says Wolfgang Weber, Chairman of the ZVEI Management Board.

Short interview

Following the press release, Onuora Ogbukagu, Company Spokesperson, Deutsche Messe AG, exclusively answered a number of questions:

Martin Schrüfer: How many visitors and exhibitors do you expect in the summer - compared to the originally planned HMI in April?

Onuora Ogbukagu: We are experiencing a great response from leading companies from the mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and software and IT sectors, so we will be organizing a strong event in terms of content with certainly more than 3,000 exhibitors. We had also targeted this figure for the event in April.

MS: Were there any dissenting voices among the exhibitors? How do you intend to make the new date attractive to the "traditionalists"?

OO: Our exhibitor and we would very much have liked to hold HANNOVER MESSE in April, which is the traditional date of the world's largest industrial trade fair, but unfortunately it is not possible in these times, so there was a unanimous vote in favor of the new date.

MS: The HMI takes place almost parallel to IFAT and LogiMAT - is that also a challenge to the trade fair organizers from Munich?

OO: This year, we will experience a strong concentration of trade fairs in the summer, which is unavoidable, so other trade fair dates had no influence on the decision to hold the Hannover Messe at the beginning of June.

MS: What was the thinking behind the decision to shorten the fair to four days? And will it be extended to five days again in 2023?

OO: We had to shorten HANNOVER MESSE to four days this year due to the high capacity utilization of the exhibition grounds in Hanover with numerous events and the associated set-up and dismantling times. It will take place again as usual in 2023.

Further trade fairs in summer

The Hannover Messe will be immediately followed by Interschutz, the world's leading trade fair for fire, rescue, civil protection and safety, which will be held as planned at the Hannover Exhibition Center from June 20 to 25.

Trade fairs in summer (selection)
30.05.-03.06. IFAT, Munich
31.05.-02.06. LogiMAT, Stuttgart
21-24.06. METAV, Düsseldorf
21-24.06. Automatica, Munich
21-23.06. Embedded World, Nuremberg
29-30.06. All About Automation, Hamburg

Flash survey

The results of the flash survey will be published here in a few days.