What is really new in Germany, Europe and worldwide is that we are realising the need to do something against climate change. Industries have to give answers on the amount of energy and resources that they are using. For me, climate change is something that our generation has to face and solve. Not only politicians but everybody (including industries) understands that they have to deliver on this topic. Therefore, at Hannover Messe, we are focusing on climate change as the core issue and delivering solutions to the challenge. Solutions are never delivered by politicians or society, but they are developed by innovators. While there are challenges related to environmental issues, the industry is also increasingly incorporating digital solutions to bring in efficiency across their value chain. Hannover Messe is representing a big picture of climate change and general industry trends and will present innovative solutions for the global manufacturing sector.

In our board, everyone is focusing on the topic of climate change because the customers are asking for it. As the CEO of Deutsche Messe AG, I bear the responsibility to answer all the questions on sustainability for my customers as well. For example, hydrogen can be produced industrially, with windmills, solar panels, etc and used for mobility, and in steel factories. Theoretically, hydrogen is a solution, but practically there are so many questions to answer like where to produce it, how to transport it, what will be the price, how to produce competitive steel with hydrogen and how to make a climatic neutral production and then to answer these questions you have to find the 400 exhibitors, who can provide potential solutions. So you can find these kinds of trends at the trade fair, which are driven by customer needs.

Hannover Messe 2023 will showcase a lot of applications; for example, the energy part of the exhibition will help you to understand where to use energy. There are a lot of systems to control energy consumption and different possibilities to make it in better way. Today, one can run a factory with 100 per cent renewable energy, but then on a cloudy, non-windy day, you need to change the energy system to run your factory. This is going to happen more in the coming years. So, at the exhibition, one can find a lot of solutions and applications to help save energy and run factories depending on the demand for energy and the type of energy resources used.

Everyone who is visiting Hannover Messe is looking for innovations to be more competitive. In Germany, we are facing the problem of a lack of availability of blue-collar workers and engineers. Thus, to operate a factory efficiently in the country, we have to adopt advanced automated solutions and robotics. Perhaps in India, the situation will be different with a large number of the young population available for work in industries. An Indian producer might look for some other innovations like sensors for quality improvement. 

So, the solutions to look at vary accordingly to the problem. The key idea is to present all the solutions and innovations on a platform at one place and time. If you have a problem at hand, you can invest a couple of days at Hannover Messe to evaluate all the available solutions to mitigate your challenge and then, at the end of the day, pick the best and the most trustful one for you. This is how the exhibition is going to function.

  

For many years, India has been an important exhibitor country for us. Yes, there are Indian exhibitors to find markets for themselves and present their products. Indian visitors are here to find business partners, the latest technologies, big industrial companies, and a lot of innovations. There has been a rise in the number of participants compared to the last year and we are happy with the rising Indian participation.

At Hannover Messe, key decision makers - business partners & top management of companies, investors, big companies, etc - will be available to present opportunities for participants (exhibitors as well as visitors) to discuss collaborations, including contract manufacturing possibilities.