Hannover Messe, an annual showcase for industry and a catalyst for future topics such as AI, sustainable production and 5G, was held as a purely digital event this year. According to the organization this year's event served two roles: it revealed the future of industry and demonstrated what tradeshows will look like going forward.
"The Hannover Messe Digital Edition demonstrated the innovative power of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and IT companies," said Dr. Jochen Köckler, CEO of Deutsche Messe AG. "At the same time, it showed that the tradeshow of the future is hybrid. Together with our exhibitors and partners, we succeeded in strengthening the core brand of the world's most important industrial show: innovation, inspiration and networking in the age of industrial transformation – that is what Hannover Messe stands for."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the industry tradeshow for industry on April 12 together with Joko Widodo, President of the Republic of Indonesia. The 1,800 participating companies presented 10,500 products and innovations to 90,000 registered participants. The conference featured 1,500 experts discussing topics such as Industry 4.0, digitalization of industrial processes, supply chain management, lightweight construction, hydrogen and electromobility.
"The positive response to the digital Hannover Messe exceeded our expectations," said Köckler. "At the same time, we saw that a digital tradeshow cannot replace the magic of a physical event. Köckler cited trust-building face-to-face discussions, concrete leads at the booth and the hands-on product experience as well as chance encounters that can lead to new business partnerships as what was missing.
During the five days of the live show, the 90,000 participants generated more than 3.5 million page views and submitted 700,000 search queries in the exhibitor and product search. In addition, the new conference and exhibitor live streams attracted approximately 140,000 views.
"Among other things, we now know that we are reaching completely new exhibitors and visitors," said Köckler. "When we transfer this knowledge to our physical events, we maximize the bandwidth of our tradeshows many times over. In this way, we increase the relevance of Hannover Messe."
All content from the event will be available online. Interested parties who missed the live week can register to learn more about the exhibitors and products and watch the keynotes and panel discussions on demand.
The leading German industrial associations agree with Deutsche Messe's assessment.
The next Hannover runs from April 25 to 29, 2022 with Portugal as the partner country.
