Hannover. From Day One - 19 May - the Hannover-based CeMAT show will feature a broad array of exciting forum events. The five-day program is being jointly organized by Deutsche Messe and selected partners from the logistics industry, providing visitors with a host of interesting talks and lively discussion rounds on a wide range of intralogistics topics.

"In selecting the various themes we concentrated this year on some major client industries and markets. Together with our partners we have succeeded in putting together a high-caliber, varied program," reports Wolfgang Pech, Senior Vice President at Deutsche Messe, adding that his company had "primarily our tradeshow visitors in focus, so we can offer them genuine added value for attending."

The forums are being staged in halls 13 and 27. The first event taking place at the Hall 13 forum will be the CeMAT opening ceremony, beginning at 11:00 a.m. That same afternoon the forum focus will be on "Industry 4.0". One of the sequences there will be presented by the Dortmund-based Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics (IML).

Monday's forum offerings in Hall 27 will feature individual nations and growth regions around the world. The primary focus will be on prospects for transport and intralogistics in Central and Eastern Europe as well as Russia and North America. The partners for this forum sequence consist of METROPLAN EASTERN EUROPE, the German Logistics Association (BVL) and the U.S.-based Material Handling Institute (MHI).

On Tuesday the Hamburg-based LMS Logistik Management Service is staging the forums in Hall 13, with topics revolving around the retail/wholesale trade. On the same day in Hall 27, the spotlight will be on chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Organized by CHEManager magazine, the day's program consists of four different speakers' forums, each rounded off by a panel discussion. Forum topics include "Pick & Pack - Using Complex Logistical Warehousing and Order Picking Systems to Master Pharmaceutical Logistics", "Chemical Industry Logistics - What Can Chemical Companies Demand from Their Logistics Service Providers?" and "Is Lean Management Also a Good Option for Chemical and Pharmaceutical Companies?" These topics will be followed by a forum focusing on the numerous opportunities afforded by state-of-the-art RFID technology. And the final forum will zero in on the storage of hazardous materials, especially the latest industry bulletins covering the relevant laws and regulations.

On Wednesday the trade publication "f+h fördern und haben" is staging a forum on the topic of "The Demographic Shift - a Major Challenge for Intralogistics" in Hall 13. Taking the shape of a panel discussion, this forum will focus not just on the impact of the demographic shift within the general population, but also on the employment of senior personnel. The afternoon session will be organized by IML, with the focus on "Innovative Order Picking Solutions with Shuttles" and "Automated In-house Transport - Innovations in Driverless Transport Systems."

On the same day the all-day CeMAT Port Forum takes place in Hall 27, an event sponsored by "Schiffahrt Hafen Bahn und Technik" magazine. Here the focus is on "Eastern European Growth Markets - a Challenge for Green Logistics in Deepwater and Inner Ports". The Port Forum is supported by the German BÖB association for publicly-owned inner ports and the Association of German Seaports (ZDS). The event's patron is the Lower Saxony State Minister of Economics, Labor and Transport, Olaf Lies.

On Thursday DVZ will stage a forum in Hall 13 under the title of "Process Optimization in the Fulfillment of Online Retailing - All Just a Matter of Technology?" This forum focuses on the general framework as well as some surprising results for logistics partners of online retailers, and on how intralogistics systems in the relevant warehouses need to be future-proof from the very start. These presentations will be followed by an open discussion of the logistical challenges facing the consumer goods sector. The partner for this forum is "Lebensmittelzeitung" magazine. Next on the agenda is a forum organized by LOGISTIK HEUTE, in a sequence entitled "Technical Solutions in eCommerce" An ever-growing number of consumers are buying goods online, and to keep pace with the competition, online retailers need to have excellent technical solutions at their disposal. These eCommercie specialists also need smart software and up-to-the-minute equipment to help them manage the steady stream of returned items. The forum will feature research experts and logistics practitioners answering questions on the latest technical solutions and likely future scenarios.

The forum in Hall 27 on Thursday will be kicked off with a sequence organized jointly by "Verkehrsrundschau" and "Gefahrgut" magazines, focusing on the storage of materials which are hazardous to water. This will be followed by a DVZ-sponsored sequence on the topic "Where Intralogistics Meets Transport: Ideal Management of the Ramp Interface". Here the focus is how processes can be optimized to relieve this chronic bottleneck, and on the benefits that stand to accrue for all participants. Subsequently BVL will offer a sequence centering on the topic of "Human-Machine Interaction in Logistics". The final event at this day's forum will be the annual general meeting of BVL.

On Friday both forums end at 3 p.m. In Hall 13 the VLB association for warehousing and factory equipment is sponsoring an all-day Warehousing Forum. In Hall 27 the AGV Conference will run concurrently, being organized by professor of engineering Dr. Lothar Schulze from the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University of Hannover.

Attendance at all forums is free of charge for CeMAT visitors.

For more information visit: www.cemat.de

About CeMAT
CeMAT - the world's leading trade fair for intralogistics - is staged in Hannover, Germany. The next CeMAT will be held from 19 to 23 May 2014, and thereafter every two years - a new cycle for the formerly triennial event. The most recent CeMAT (in 2011) featured more than 1,000 exhibitors from 39 nations, attracting some 53,500 trade visitors from around the world. Half of the exhibitors and a third of the visitors came from outside of Germany. CeMAT is now so important to the international logistics industry that its organizer, Deutsche Messe, has exported the concept to four of the world's fastest-growing markets: CeMAT ASIA (28 to 31 October 2013 in Shanghai), CeMAT INDIA (17 to 20 December 2013 in Delhi), CeMAT RUSSIA (23 to 26 September 2014 in Moscow), and CeMAT SOUTH AMERICA (30 June to 3 July 2015 in Sao Paulo). Deutsche Messe also stages two thematically related events: MATERIALS HANDLING EURASIA (19 to 22 March 2014 in Istanbul) and INTRALOGISTICA ITALIA (19 to 23 May 2015 in Milan).

Contact:
Torsten Weiss - Deutsche Messe
Email: send a message
Web: www.messe.de
Tel. +49 511 89-31153
Fax +49 511 89-31150

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