At the end of maintenance 2022 in Dortmund, exhibitors and visitors drew a consistently positive conclusion. The exhibitors were eagerly awaiting the opportunity to present their innovations and talk to potential customers after a two-year break. The visitors wanted to get to know these innovations in order to optimize the maintenance processes in their company.

At the end of maintenance, the unanimous conclusion can be drawn: The expectations of exhibitors and visitors were fully met, if not exceeded. Project manager Maria Soloveva: "We were actually able to organize a real industry get-together. The 208 exhibitors, including the two premium partners Eska-Welt and Robur, presented a very broad spectrum of products and services, and the 3,314 participants were able to take home many ideas."

The "spirit" at the trade fair was also characterized by a positive mood: "It was clearly noticeable and many conversations confirmed that the community was very relieved and pleased to be able to make contacts again. Exhibitors and visitors made intensive use of this opportunity." Sandro Vanetta and Peter Clausen from exhibitor Nord-Lock confirm: "For us, maintenance is one of the few trade fairs where leads are generated and it was great to be able to be there again in 2022."

The leading trade fair is the "place-to-be" where qualified suppliers meet their target group in industrial maintenance and make initial contact with potential customers. Stefan Mitterer, Oelcheck: "After visiting maintenance 2022, we have decided to take part as an exhibitor next year. After all, maintenance is the perfect place to make new contacts with industry colleagues and potential customers."

The supporting program also underlines the importance of maintenance as the leading trade fair. The keynote speech by Dr.-Ing. Thomas Heller, Head of the Plant and Service Management Department at Fraunhofer IML, on the ScienceCenter stage was well attended, as were the exhibitors' presentations on current products and solutions for maintenance. Matthias Knecht, Heidelberger Beton: "This was my first visit to maintenance in Dortmund. I was positively impressed by the extensive and interesting topics on the lecture stages, especially on digitalization." The "Guided Tours" on selected topics under the expert guidance and moderation of the FIR at RWTH Aachen University were also very well received: they were fully booked.

Another future trend in industrial trade fairs is likely to be compact formats and industry get-togethers with a national and regional focus. Maintenance is also setting a good example here: the next meeting points for the industry are the RegioDays of maintenance in Augsburg (October 5, 2022) and Hamburg (November 16, 2022). And the date for next year's leading national trade fair has already been set: the next maintenance in Dortmund will take place from May 24 to 25, 2023.