At the end of the lecture program, organizer Mesago draws a positive conclusion. During SPS Connect, 239 exhibitors with 4,329 employees presented more than 2,500 products. 9,008 active participants, 27 percent of whom were international, used the virtual platform over the three days of the event to find out about current trends and innovations and to expand their professional network. The platform will remain active until the end of the year in order to continue to offer interested parties the opportunity to exchange ideas and consume video content on-demand.

Cooperation partner Siemens was also positive about the virtual event: "As the largest exhibitor at the physical SPS trade fair, it was also important to us for the virtual format in this difficult situation to create a positive external perception for SPS through a strong partnership presence. It was just as important for us to reach our customers and interested parties in person this year. To this end, we have closely linked our own virtual format, the Siemens Digital Enterprise SPS Dialog, with SPSConnect," says Marcus Bliesze, Head of Marketing Factory Automation at Siemens Digital Industries.

Good response to the lecture program

The varied agenda of SPS Connect comprised a total of 120 program items in three parallel streams and several roundtables, with the most popular presentations being followed live by more than1,300 people. Highlights included the speech by Bavarian Minister President Dr. Markus Söder, who spoke about the opportunities and limits of politics in dealing with the pandemic and in terms of opening up new technological possibilities. The keynotes "Standstill as an accelerator" by Karl-Heinz Land, "AI: From automation to digital business models" by Dr. Holger Schmidt and "Cyber security in industry" by Prof. Thomas R. Köhler were also very well received.

21310 networks were established between the participants and 4166 business meetings were generated by the end of the event week. "The idea of integrating matchmaking into SPS Connect and focusing on it was exactly the right one from our point of view," confirms Ulrich Leidecker, COO and President of the Industrial Management and Automation business area at long-standing exhibitor Phoenix Contact.

It is also interesting in this context that the virtual format has opened up completely new target groups, as Fausto Carboni reports. "We have reached a diverse audience that is different from the physical trade fair. A look at the statistics shows that we were able to establish numerous new contacts and relationships," says the CEO of Italian transmission manufacturer Bonfiglioli.

An important milestone in special times

"We are very satisfied with the results of SPS Connect and are pleased to have once again offered the automation industry an opportunity to exchange ideas with the virtual format this year," summarizes Sylke Schulz-Metzner, Vice President SPS at Mesago. "Our special thanks go to the numerous participants as well as our long-standing exhibitors, whose participation made the virtual format possible in the first place."

"TheSPS is the most important trade fair of the year for us and the industry, which is why it is important to us that it continues to exist," confirms Steffen Winkler, Sales Manager of the Automation & Electrification Solutions business unit at Bosch Rexroth AG. "We are happy to support this with our participation." The virtual platform will remain active until the end of the year and will allow participants to continue exchanging information via chats and view all the presentations from the main program. The meeting function will be available until December 4. Next year, SPS will take place again in its usual form in Nuremberg from November 23 to 25.