Planning work now starting on three GrindingHub halls

Over 260 com­pa­nies had secured a place at Grind­ingHub as the reg­is­tra­tion phase drew to a close at the end of Sep­tem­ber. Now the team behind the new trade fair for grind­ing tech­nol­o­gy is mov­ing into the next phase of plan­ning which involves the allo­ca­tion of more than 14,500 net square meters (equiv­a­lent to around 30,000 gross square meters) of exhi­bi­tion space.

“We are more than sat­is­fied with the num­ber of reg­is­tra­tions and are delight­ed with how Grind­ingHub is already set to become the new focal point for grind­ing tech­nol­o­gy,” says Dr. Wil­fried Schäfer, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the VDW (Ger­man Machine Tool Builders’ Asso­ci­a­tion). “Of course, we still want to give all those inter­est­ed the oppor­tu­ni­ty to exhib­it in Stuttgart in May 2022 and will there­fore be stay­ing in close touch with the companies.”

Plan­ning which reflects the needs of exhibitors and visitors

The strong fig­ures mean that the plan­ners can now start work on the detailed lay­out of three halls at the mod­ern Stuttgart Exhi­bi­tion Cen­ter – includ­ing the Paul Horn Hall which opened in 2018. The new stop for the U6 line is cur­rent­ly near­ing com­ple­tion close to the West Entrance, giv­ing vis­i­tors excel­lent access to pub­lic trans­porta­tion; the air­port is also with­in walk­ing dis­tance. “With the air­port right in front of the trade fair, the direct con­nec­tion to Stuttgart’s main train sta­tion and the close prox­im­i­ty of the A8 free­way, we expect the event to attract large num­bers of inter­na­tion­al par­tic­i­pants,” says Gun­nar Mey, Head of the Indus­try Depart­ment at Messe Stuttgart, express­ing his ambi­tions for the new trade fair. The blend­ed struc­ture of the exhi­bi­tion halls them­selves is intend­ed to ensure an opti­mum mix of booths. Tak­ing the spe­cif­ic needs and require­ments of the exhibitors into account, the lay­out will be planned in liai­son with the exhibitors in the com­ing weeks. This will include both the large num­ber of requests for more sub­stan­tial booth sizes and also for small­er book­ings. The offi­cial hall plan show­ing the final lay­out is sched­uled for release at the end of Jan­u­ary 2022.

Focus on health and safety

Of course, the pan­dem­ic requires a great deal of flex­i­bil­i­ty, and this is a major fac­tor in the plan­ning. The aisles are being planned at a width of four meters to allow the nec­es­sary dis­tanc­ing. Messe Stuttgart has devel­oped its “Safe Expo” hygiene con­cept in coor­di­na­tion with the author­i­ties. This empha­sizes the impor­tance of the safe­ty, health and well-being of all par­tic­i­pants at the event. Its effec­tive­ness has already been demon­strat­ed at ini­tial trade shows this fall, includ­ing the Blech­ex­po and Schweis­stec. In addi­tion, EMO Milano 2021 offered the met­al­work­ing indus­try the oppor­tu­ni­ty to meet for the first time again face-to-face on a larg­er inter­na­tion­al stage, pro­vid­ing for a safe, up-to-date and suc­cess­ful come-back of the indus­try. “Per­son­al inter­ac­tion and direct con­tact with cus­tomers are extreme­ly impor­tant for man­u­fac­tur­ers. Video con­fer­ences and vir­tu­al meet­ings are no real sub­sti­tutes – as I think we all noticed in Milan. This, of course, makes the antic­i­pa­tion of see­ing every­one again at the upcom­ing trade fairs all the greater,” com­ments Schäfer.

Top­i­cal con­tent, con­tem­po­rary for­mats and a high­ly attrac­tive trade show location

Grind­ingHub will be cel­e­brat­ing its pre­miere in Stuttgart from 17 to 20 May 2022. With its inter­na­tion­al ori­en­ta­tion and an attrac­tive loca­tion that is eas­i­ly acces­si­ble from all over the world, the event holds plen­ty of poten­tial. The orga­niz­ers are also part of a glob­al net­work of asso­ci­a­tions through­out the well-known man­u­fac­tur­ing nations, and have plen­ty of expe­ri­ence in orga­niz­ing trade shows. The prin­ci­pal areas will be Tech­nol­o­gy / Process­es, Pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, Automa­tion and Dig­i­tal­iza­tion in Grind­ing Tech­nol­o­gy. Two joint “Grind­ing­So­lu­tion­Park” booths are also planned – demon­strat­ing how sci­ence and indus­try can work hand-in-hand togeth­er. The Grind­ingHub Web Ses­sions will begin in the run-up to the event in spring 2022. These proved their worth dur­ing the METAV dig­i­tal and will now serve to whet vis­i­tors’ appetites for the new trade fair for grind­ing tech­nol­o­gy – encour­ag­ing them to attend the event itself in Stuttgart and to make con­tact with exhibitors.

Author: Tobias Beck­mann, online edi­tor, VDW