More than 7,000 visitors at the 25th VISION in Stuttgart – Further increase in the internationality of the world’s leading trade fair – Visitors very interested in applications – 2013 date brought forward to September
The 25th VISION, the world’s leading trade fair for machine vision, was held in Stuttgart from 6 to 8 November 2012 and again attracted over 7,000 visitors, i.e. the same number as in the previous year (2011: 7,055). Just like in 2011, 36 per cent of these visitors came from abroad. Visitors from around 50 countries were represented. In line with the tenor “One VISION“, all exhibitors were combined this year for the first time under one roof in the L-Bank Forum (high hall 1). The anniversary VISION was attended by 372 exhibitors (2011: 351), a new record. 49 per cent of exhibitors came from abroad (2011: 46 per cent), i.e. the highest number ever. They came from 32 countries. Nearly every key player from the machine vision industry took part in the trade fair. They brought with them components and systems, e.g. cameras, vision sensors, frame grabbers, software tools, illumination systems, lenses, accessories and complete systems and application solutions.
“We are delighted that VISION also clearly demonstrated its international orientation this year. The further increase in the number of foreign exhibitors is a great success for VISION and the machine vision industry”, concluded Dr. Olaf Munkelt, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the VDMA Machine Vision Association, Frankfurt, and Managing Director of MVTec Software GmbH, Munich.
In the 25 years of its existence, VISION has grown up with the machine vision industry and, as a competent presentation and communication platform, has helped to promote the growth of this industry. Machine vision (MV) is now one of the important key technologies in German industry and is used in nearly every branch of the economy. Industrial sectors such as medical technology, traffic monitoring and management, agriculture and security technology cannot now manage without machine vision.
Consequently, the visitors at VISION 2012 came from many different industries. A significant increase in the proportion of visitors from industry was recorded – 73 to 77 per cent. Generally speaking, industrial visitors came primarily from the machine vision industry itself (43 per cent). However, second place was occupied by visitors from the mechanical engineering industry with 19 per cent (2011: 15 per cent). In the past,. exhibitors were especially interested in this visitor group in particular. The following places were taken by the visitor industries of electrical engineering/electronics, precision mechanics/optics, the automotive and components supply industry, and medical technology. The ‘Medical Discovery Tour’ was held this year for the second time primarily for the last visitor target group. 38 exhibitors took part in this event and presented goods and services specially for medical technology.
Visitors again showed a high level of expertise. 85 per cent of respondents said that they were involved in purchasing and procurement decisions in their company. There was a further increase in the propensity to invest as 87 per cent of visitors came to VISION 2012 with investment intentions and/or purchase intentions (2011: 85 per cent). This clearly indicates that the machine vision industry can still rely on a stable economic situation in its customer industries.
Visitors were primarily interested in machine vision components and applications. An increasing number of visitors (rise from 22 to 26 per cent) expressed an interest in turnkey machine vision systems. This proves once again that it was right to establish an ‘Integration Area’ for this visitor target group where system suppliers can purposefully present their products and services. The VDMA Technology Days were a new feature at VISION 2012. Under the motto “Research Meets Industry”, 11 research institutions from several countries presented research projects with great application and market potential to trade visitors at VISION. “The innovations demonstrated in this event will lead to enormous improvements in production in many different industries or ensure far more comfort for people in their everyday lives, for example in the automotive sector”, said Thomas Walter, Head of the Industry & Technology Competence Team at Messe Stuttgart, with conviction.
92 per cent of visitors are now already looking forward to VISION 2013. They are also intending to come to Stuttgart for VISION 2013, which will be staged two months earlier from 24 to 26 September 2013.
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