 Forkliftaction.com's stand at CeMAT 2005. |
by the Forkliftaction.com teamHannover city pulled out all stops and offered Forkliftaction.com's team exceptional autumn weather during CeMAT 2005.
The team stayed in the Oststadt-List area of Hannover, an elegant residential suburb with great shopping, pubs, restaurants and the unique Eilenriede forest, a "city forest" nicknamed Hannover's "green lung", covering 650 hectares in the middle of the city. The picturesque 9th century town of Hameln, home to the Pied Piper legend, is a short train ride.
Deutsche Messe AG's exhibition grounds, where CeMAT was held, were 20 minutes away, via Deutsche Bahn AG's efficient U-Bahn train. Fortunately, Germans speak good English and were excellent hosts. At times German meal sizes were rather generous portions but our satisfied stomachs could not complain.
CeMAT this year was smaller because it had been separated from Hannover Messe and rebranded as a stand-alone event for the intralogistics sector. Feedback the team received was that the quality of visitors to the show was high and diverse, with many stands welcoming international visitors.
"Such trade fairs, with qualitatively high-minded visitors, will undoubtedly gain even more success in the future," said Dirk Cardoen, Germany area sales manager for TVH. "In the current age of e-business, such an exhibition is an excellent meeting place for business-to-business purposes."
The layout was more compact, which meant visitors could move between exhibitors quickly and easily, especially if they could hitch a ride in the three-wheel, trishaw-style vehicle sponsored by Toyota.
Most large manufacturers and European dealers were present, although there were a few noticeable absentees. There was a larger Eastern European and Chinese presence, in exhibitors and visitors, than in the past. Many exhibitors had products from their countries proudly on display. Sampling fine Polish, German and Belgian beers, Italian and Spanish wines, or Spanish and Portuguese meats enhanced the atmosphere.
The Forkliftaction.com stand bustled with activity during the five-day exhibition. At times, the number of people who visited was overwhelming. We were glad to hear from many people who enjoy reading Forkliftaction.com News and are acquainted with the Marketplace and our other web resources. Live demonstrations of our web portal's services encouraged many forklift professionals to become part of the Forkliftaction.com global e-community.
As in past CeMAT fairs, the live entertainment was fantastic with the Still acrobats, Linde dancers and Jungheinrich's song and magic act. OM Pimespo's leather-clad girls ranked high as a favourite with some of our team and the Toyota GP racing pleased the international audience.
CeMAT was not without some drama. Our team heard of Asian photographers being asked to leave exhibitor stands and some of us witnessed European photographers being chased away from a Chinese exhibitor's stand.
It is unfortunate the event was not without opportunists who exploited the crowd to distract exhibitors from their valuable equipment. Alan Dawson, from MACBAT, Sweden, said that, while standing near a hall exit, he heard some exhibitors shouting in German and running after a young man with a laptop under his arm. Mr Dawson grabbed the man who stopped without putting up a fight. The exhibitors called the police and CeMAT management.
CeMAT management's project director Manfred Kutzinski said such incidents were common at trade shows. "It's the first time I heard of this particular incident but this is nothing new to me. Unfortunately these things are a common occurrence at trade shows. Thieves like to go for notebooks and laptops."
In coming weeks we will publish a series of profiles and interviews with industry professionals who kindly gave us their time and welcomed us to their stands. Thank you to TVH, Nexen, Doosan, Kalmar, Linde, Hyundai, Svetruck, BT, Hubtex, Manitou, MIC, OM Pimespo, SMV, Meclift, Mecano Reja, Intrupa, Kaup, Raeder-Vogel, Meyer, ATIB Elletronica, Haulotte Group, Watts Industrial Tyres, Trelleborg, Ravas, Savas, Lisman and Fritzmeier for the great reception we got at their stands. We now have some very interesting Belgian dance steps to add to our repertoire and lots of photos in our photo gallery to share with you.
We appreciate the interest displayed by all stand visitors and look forward to future contacts with you. Thank you to the Press Centre staff for their professionalism and helpfulness and rides to the halls when our sore feet were unable to take another step.
We look forward to seeing you all at Hannover in 2008.
In coming weeks we will contact everyone we talked to at the show. However, if you wish to continue your conversation with us quicker, please contact us. If you are not sure how, email www.forkliftaction.com and we'll put you in contact with the right person.
For more CeMAT photos, go to our photo gallery.