Industry News

Some 196,000 visitors made their way to Frankfurt for Light+Building 2012, The World’s Biggest Trade Fair for Lighting and Building Services Technology, which closed its doors on 20 April. This is an estimated increase of around 7 percent compared to the last edition two years ago.

At the fully booked Frankfurt Fair and Exhibition Centre, 2352 manufacturers from 50 countries presented their latest products and trends in the fields of lighting, electrical engineering, home and building automation, and software for the construction industry. The increase in the number of visitors comes equally from home and abroad. The proportion of international visitors rose again and has now reached 44 percent. In other words, almost one in two visitors came from outside Germany.

“Light+Building is the world’s biggest trade fair for energy efficiency. Accounting for 40 percent of the total, buildings are the world’s biggest consumer of energy and, therefore, play an important role for smart grids and decentralised energy supply. The very good result shows the extent of worldwide demand for environmentally friendly light and building-services solutions – and that Light+Building is the foremost meeting place for the industry and decision makers. As we learnt in many discussions during the fair, the results exceeded the sector’s expectations,” said Wolfgang Marzin, president and chief executive officer of Messe Frankfurt, the show producer.

The economic outlook in the sector is seen in a very positive light: 91 percent of visitors and 83 percent of exhibitors are satisfied with the economic situation. After Germany, the 10 leading visitor nations at Light+Building 2012 were The Netherlands, Italy, France, Austria, China, Great Britain, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, and Russia. There was significant growth in numbers from North and South American and Asian countries such as India, South Korea, and Japan. The visitor structure remained more or less unchanged with the main groups coming from the installation trade, industry and trade, as well as architects, light planners, and engineers.

Visitor interest was split evenly between lighting technology and building-services technology: 98 percent were satisfied with the range of products and services seen at the fair. The average time spent by visitors at the fair was 2 days. The poll of exhibitors produced an equally good result: 86 percent said they had achieved their goals for the fair. Manufacturers from all over the world emphasized the high level of visitor quality, in particular the decision-making authority and internationality of visitors, and the number of new contacts made in target groups of relevance to them.

Both trade and industry rate the course of business at Light+Building and the results as having been good. Friedhelm Loh, president of the German Association of the Electrical and Electronics Industry (Zentralverband Elektrotechnik- und Elektronikindustrie e.V. – ZVEI), said, “Light+Building 2012 has more than fulfilled the expectations of the ZVEI association. The large number of visitors and the high quality of visitors make us optimistic that the markets for lighting and building-services technology will develop positively over the coming year. The energy-efficient technologies to be seen showed that the shift to the new energy paradigm can be successfully accomplished using the expertise of the electrical-engineering industry.”

Walter Tschischka, president of the Central Association of the German Electrical and Information Technology Trades (Zentralverband der Deutschen Elektro- und Informationstechnischen Handwerke – ZVEH), said, “The electrical-installation trade is innovative and Light+Building 2012 shows that the shift to the new energy paradigm is impossible without the electrical-installation trade. At the E-House, visitors could see the new energy paradigm in real life. Thus, the trade was able to demonstrate its innovativeness when it comes to implementing environmental targets. The exhibitors reported that our member companies showed great interest in innovations – especially in future-oriented system solutions.”

The range of products and services at the world’s biggest trade fair for lighting and building-services technology was supplemented by the ‘Buildings as power stations in the smart grid’ special show and the Building Performance Congress. Also popular was the Trend Forum where design agency bora.herke.palmisano presented the home trends for 2012-13 in four home scenarios.

  During the evenings after Light+Building, trade visitors and the citizens of Frankfurt had the chance to enjoy another highlight. Luminale is a spectacular series of illuminations that transformed locations in Frankfurt and the region into fascinating worlds of light. Over 140,000 visitors from all over the world were transfixed by the 170 lighting installations in Frankfurt and several other cities in the region.

The next Light+Building will be held in Frankfurt am Main from March 30 -  April 4,  2014.

About Messe Frankfurt
Messe Frankfurt is Germany’s leading trade fair organiser with € 457* million in sales and 1,769* employees worldwide (*provisional figures for 2011).

The Messe Frankfurt Group has a global network of 28 subsidiaries, five branch offices and 52 international Sales Partners, giving it a presence for its customers in more than 150 countries. Events ‘made by Messe Frankfurt’ take place at more than 30 locations around the globe. In 2011, Messe Frankfurt organised 101 trade fairs, of which more than half took place outside Germany.

Messe Frankfurt’s exhibition grounds, featuring 578,000 square metres, are currently home to ten exhibition halls and an adjacent Congress Centre. The company is publicly owned, with the City of Frankfurt holding 60 percent and the State of Hesse 40 percent.