let’s talk about innovation

The METAV organ­is­er VDW (Ger­man Machine Tool Builders’ Asso­ci­a­tion), Frank­furt am Main, is invit­ing all those inter­est­ed to take part in its METAV Web Ses­sions – enti­tled “Let’s talk about inno­va­tion” – from 15 to 19 June 2020. “METAV 2020 has had to be post­poned by a year due to the coro­na pan­dem­ic, and so now we want to offer vis­i­tors and exhibitors an alter­na­tive in the form of the METAV Web Ses­sions,” says VDW Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Dr. Wil­fried Schäfer. In good time before the resched­uled METAV in March next year, the METAV Web Ses­sions will pro­vide a plat­form which allows users from the met­al­work­ing indus­try to keep abreast of the lat­est inno­va­tions in pro­duc­tion technology.

Launch­ing on 15 June 2020, the METAV Web Ses­sions are the dig­i­tal plat­form for met­al­work­ing aimed at pro­vid­ing infor­ma­tion on pro­duc­tion solu­tions in the post-coro­na era

“The biggest chal­lenge for the com­pa­nies now will be know­ing how to ramp up pro­duc­tion again after the lock-down, how to sta­bilise their sales and return their deliv­ery sys­tem to full work­ing order in a short space of time,” says Schäfer, describ­ing the sit­u­a­tion. This is why so many METAV exhibitors accept­ed the VDW’s invi­ta­tion so quick­ly, he explains: the METAV Web Ses­sions pro­vide an oppor­tu­ni­ty for com­pa­nies to recon­nect with their cus­tomers and to show how their prod­ucts can help in the restruc­tur­ing of pro­duc­tion. Jas­min Hert­er, spokesper­son from Gühring KG in Alb­stadt, Ger­many, says: “The VDW’s METAV Web Ses­sions are turn­ing chal­lenges into oppor­tu­ni­ties. They are high­light­ing new solu­tions, which we at Gühring are keen to explore. We’re look­ing for­ward to shap­ing such a vir­tu­al trade fair and to dis­cov­er­ing what pos­si­bil­i­ties it has to offer.”

Over five days, near­ly 90 com­pa­nies will be giv­ing spe­cial­ist talks from 9:00 to 17:00 in the fol­low­ing top­ic areas: Dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion, Pre­ci­sion Tools, Machine Tools and Sys­tems, Soft­ware, Mea­sure­ment Sys­tems and Qual­i­ty Assur­ance, Addi­tive Man­u­fac­tur­ing, Com­po­nents and Sys­tems, Med­ical Tech­nol­o­gy and Ser­vices, in Ger­man and part­ly in Eng­lish. “The METAV Web Ses­sions are now ful­ly booked,” says a delight­ed Stephanie Simon, Trade Fairs Project Offi­cer and organ­is­er of the event. Just as at the METAV itself, vis­i­tors will be able to com­pare and con­trast what the sup­pli­ers are offer­ing and, of course, ask ques­tions and dis­cuss with the pro­duc­tion experts, she con­tin­ues. “We’re real­ly look­ing for­ward to all the excit­ing and inspir­ing pre­sen­ta­tions. The exhibitors will be able to work with many dif­fer­ent for­mats – from Pow­er­Point pre­sen­ta­tions to pho­tos, videos, sim­u­la­tions and much more, besides,” says Simon. She is con­vinced that the coro­na cri­sis also offers an oppor­tu­ni­ty to explore new web for­mats that could com­ple­ment actu­al trade fairs in the future.

Udo Hipp, Head of Mar­ket­ing at Maschi­nen­fab­rik Berthold Hermle AG in Gosheim, Ger­many, takes a sim­i­lar view: “We see the METAV Web Ses­sions as a good way of mak­ing and stay­ing in con­tact with inter­est­ed par­ties and cus­tomers. We’re look­ing for­ward to see­ing what response and feed­back we get. The Web Ses­sions will cer­tain­ly rep­re­sent a good addi­tion to the mar­ket­ing mix in the future.”

Indeed, dig­i­tal events are cur­rent­ly enjoy­ing a boom. “Togeth­er with our part­ner, Indus­tr­yAre­na, and the high­ly moti­vat­ed team, we’ve very quick­ly suc­ceed­ed in devel­op­ing an effec­tive plat­form for the week-long METAV Web Ses­sions and in stag­ing dig­i­tal ver­sions of a large num­ber of pre­sen­ta­tions,” says Schäfer. He added that the METAV Web Ses­sions have already become the top dig­i­tal event in the met­al­work­ing indus­try in terms of exhibitor num­bers and the breadth of topics.

The web­site www.metav-websessions.com has now gone online. All those inter­est­ed can view the com­plete pro­gramme and reg­is­ter there.

Fur­ther infor­ma­tion: Stephanie Simon, VDW Trade Fairs Project Offi­cer, Tel. +49 69 756081–53, s.simon@vdw.de.