Optimism from Electronica visitors

The 20th Electronica underlined its leading role as a motivator for the market.

The 20th Electronica underlined its leading role as a motivator for the market.

36% of visitors assessed the current economic situation as "good", while it is still "acceptable" for a further 36%.

The mood among exhibitors is not quite so buoyant: 25% consider the situation good, 41% acceptable.

The considerably more positive view taken by the visitors indicates that they have a greater tendency to invest.

This illustrates the confidence shown by users of electronics.

The agreement is much closer when it comes to forecasts for the future of the business.

46% of visitors and 45% of exhibitors expect things to improve, while 38% of visitors and 35% of exhibitors are reckoning with no appreciable change.

The number of visitors, 77,000, was somewhat higher than the organisers had expected.

Admittedly it was rather lower than the previous Electronica two years ago (83,000), but the fall was not as great as with other trade fairs.

It was to be expected, in view of the various mergers and many companies' restrictions on business travel.

Even so, the potential demand has risen, as these visitors represented about 27,500 companies (compared with 24,000 in 2000).

The proportion of trade visitors, 99%, was as high as ever.

The visitors' qualifications, already high, have improved.

51% of them hold a managerial position (43% in 2000), while 21% belong to their company's upper management (15% in 2000).

Over 30% of visitors came from outside Germany.

This was confirmed by Norbert Hauser, Vice-President of EMEA Marketing at Kontron: "For us, Electronica has again proved its international character - roughly 40% of the visitors to our stand had come from abroad.

We weren't expecting such a high proportion".

Helmut Friedrich, Head of Connectors and Trabtech at Phoenix Contact, is also very pleased with the number of visitors and their qualifications.

"Electronica went well for us, just as expected.

We had 10 or 15% more visitors than two years ago, and their qualifications were at least as high.

I think we can soon expect a slight upturn in our sector, industrial technology".

3003 exhibitors (down 1.5% from 3050 two years ago) and 511 additionally represented organisations from 54 countries showed their products and applications at the New Munich Trade Fair Centre from 12th to 15th November 2002.

Electronica 2002 thus remained very much at the level of the boom year 2000, occupying all the halls at the centre.

With its segments Embedded Systems, Automotive Innovation, and The World of MEMS, Electronica has extended its applications-oriented character.

Over 20,000 specialist visitors took the opportunity to find out more about new devices and applications in Embedded Systems.

83% of them assessed the range of products and services here as "very good" to "excellent".

That is backed up by Bernie Rosenthal, Senior Vice-President for Marketing and Business Development at Tensilica: "The Electronica show exceeded our expectations, both in the number of visitors and in their attitude.

The visitors are very much interested in our technologies and how we can support them with their current and future projects".

The Embedded Systems Conference Munich, which took place in the ICM (International Congress Centre, Munich) from 11th to 13th November, was also very much user-oriented.

It got off to a successful start this year with 280 participants.

The Automotive Innovation user forum was extremely well received by exhibitors.

Andreas Kohlmeyer, marketing manager of the Automotive Division of Cherry, had this to say about it: "The trade fair went very well for us.

We made many contacts, very good ones.

And that applies especially to the Automotive Innovation user forum.

That's proof for us that Electronica has moved very much towards applications.

We like the concept of a user forum on a particular theme".

The World of MEMS also came across very well.

93% of the exhibitors who took part assessed the new exhibition area as good to excellent.

The visitors were almost as enthusiastic, with 90% reaching the same verdict.

Visitors to Electronica were required to register this year for the first time.

Over 26,000 of them took the opportunity of registering in advance via the Internet.

There were 420 terminals in the entrance areas, so that there was effectively no waiting.

The exhibitors' initial reactions were positive, even if the visitors found the idea took some getting used to.

As Wolfgang Schuler, Managing Director of Rittal, put it: "From our point of view, the electronic badges have the advantage that first of all we know just who we're talking to on the stand, and secondly we have a better database for the follow-up after the fair.

But most visitors still prefer to hand out visiting cards".

For Messe Munchen, the organiser, the registration data are a reliable base for tailoring Electronica even better in future to the needs of the visitors.

Electronica's role as a key international trade fair and business platform for the worldwide electronics industry has been demonstrated in an impressive way.

The international character of exhibitors and visitors, the wide and full range of products and services, and the size and importance of Electronica for the industry were assessed very positively by both exhibitors and visitors.

The great majority of visitors achieved their most important goals - getting a feel for the market, finding out about innovations, and keeping up existing business relations - to a high degree.

For the exhibitors the main objectives were to make new business contacts, maintain existing relations, and prepare for follow-on business.

They, too, achieved them to a very large extent.

Reiner Schonrock, Director of Media Relations at Infineon Technologies, summed it up as follows: "We're most satisfied with the number and quality of the visitors to the stand.

The trade-fair concept has proved its worth, with its presentations of technological highlights such as "wearable electronics" that provide a large number of people with comprehensive information in the shortest possible time.

Electronica is our most important "meet and greet" point every two years".

Electronica 2004 will take place at the New Munich Trade Fair Centre from 9th to 12th November 2004.

(This was Electronicstalk's Top Story on 19 November 2002).

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