INTERGEO as a global marketplace for emerging technologies, industry networking shapes the innovations of tomorrow
Nuremberg, 30 September 2011. “INTERGEO is where users of specific technologies can get talking to people from all sectors of the industry. This dialogue generates new strategies and applications, and results in an enormous range of potential new areas of usage,” explains Olaf Freier, Managing Director of HINTE GmbH and INTERGEO organiser. “The international trade fair INTERGEO is the perfect environment to encourage this dialogue.” Prof. Karl-Friedrich Thöne, President of the German Society for Geodesy, Geoinformation and Land Management (DVW e.V.) in Nuremberg, adds: “There is simply no better platform to promote networking between providers and users on a professional level.” After three busy days, the 17th INTERGEO drew to a close yesterday.
16,000 visitors from 80 countries flocked to the fair to find out about the industry’s latest innovations and trends. Once again, there was a rise in the proportion of visitors from outside Germany. During the conference, 1,500 participants used the 140 presentations and discussions on around 40 different topics to spark intensive interdisciplinary dialogue. The exhibitors have more than confirmed the success of the event. In an initial survey, 92 percent of the participating companies, institutions and associations stated that they had achieved their goals for the fair.
What’s more, they were united in their praise for the high quality of contacts they made. In 2011, the focus at INTERGEO was very much on the geodata infrastructure, sensors and 3D mapping.
The cooperation with the SatNav Forum proved extremely successful. Organised by the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development (BMVBS) and the Federal Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM), this was the first time the annual navigation conference was held in conjunction with INTERGEO. “There has never been such intensive dialogue between politicians and representatives of the geoinformation technologies sector as at this year’s INTERGEO. That’s a clear indication of the important role geoinformation plays in our lives today and will continue to play in the future,” says Thöne. Discussions on intensifying and continuing this collaboration have already been agreed. During a tour of the three trade fair halls, State Secretary at the BMVBS Rainer Bomba was impressed by the wide range of industry solutions offered over a display area of 28,000 square metres. “INTERGEO is one of the most important events for Trimble,” comments Chris Gibson, Vice President of the conference sponsor. INTERGEO is a particularly key event for companies due to the high quality of its visitors – 75 percent are managers and decision-makers.
Of that, almost 70 percent come to INTERGEO with the express intention of awarding contracts. Thanks to intensive media networking worldwide and wide acceptance of the mobile concept of INTERGEO, around two-thirds of visitors travelled over 300 km to attend the fair. That marks a 16 percent increase over the previous year. The proportion of first-time visitors rose to 35 percent. Over 90 per cent of exhibiting companies, government authorities and associations have already announced their intention to take part in the fair in Hanover in 2012.
DVW e.V. – the German Society for Geodesy, Geoinformation and Land Management – is the patron of the next INTERGEO, which is to be held from 9 to 11 October 2012 in Hanover.