NOVEMBER 15--Around 5140 visitors, 10% more than in 2004 (4673), came to Stuttgart, Germany, from 8 to 10 November 2005, to obtain information on the extensive range of products and services presented by the 196 exhibitors (2004: 182) at VISION 2005. In 2004, only one in four visitors did not come from Germany. This year, the proportion of foreign visitors rose and is now about one-third. They came from 41 countries, for example, Australia, Canada, the USA, Russia, China, and Japan.
This result met with an extremely positive response from exhibitors. "It was demonstrated once again that VISION is the most important trade fair for the industry", said Dietmar Ley, chairman of the board of management of Basler, Ahrensburg, and at the same time chairman of the executive committee of the German Engineering Federation (VDMA), Machine Vision Group. "We had more customers on our stand, far more inquiries, and higher customer expertise than last year. We are therefore expecting very good business after the event. Our attendance at VISION was therefore definitely worthwhile."
In addition, the expertise of visitors increased again: 88% of visitors are involved in purchasing decisions in their company (2004: 84%); 80% of visitors also said that they were planning to make investments either immediately or in the next six months.
Visitors at VISION were primarily interested in components such as cameras, optics, sensors, image-acquisition hardware, and processors (71%). Systems for measurement, quality control, surface inspection, identification of codes and characters, and for robot guidance also proved very popular among visitors (42%). 10% of visitors were also interested in services and the latest findings from research and theory (multiple nominations possible). Visitors came from all conceivable industries, for example the mechanical engineering industry, the car industry, the automotive component supply industry, the medical technology industry, the electronics and electrical engineering industry, the surface technology industry and many other industrial sectors.
"The importance of VISION for the industry has again increased substantially. 54% of visitors actually believe that the trade fair will also become increasingly more important in the future," said Meike Krutinat, VISION project manager. "The fact that 99% of visitors would recommend VISION to other people is a clear indication that this trade fair contains a complete program. There is no comparable event anywhere in the world at which all market participants are so solidly represented as at VISION in Stuttgart."
The next VISION will be held again in Stuttgart, from 7 to 9 November 2006. For more information see www.vision-messe.de.