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I spent last week in Hanover -an industrial city of half a million people in Northern Germany- and it was the place to be. Never heard of it? Not surprising if you're in the US. Although unknown to many US readers, Hanover is home to Hanover Messe, or Hanover Fair- the world’s largest industrial conference. The Hanover Fair started in the 50s as a method of stoking Germany’s postwar economy, and grew into a critical pre-internet information sharing venue for Germany’s engineers, inventors and technology companies. Now it is a sprawling tech conference covering a dozen sectors: industrial automation, motion, drive and automation, energy, powerplant technology, wind, mobilitech, digital factory, comvac, industrial supply, coiltechnica, surface technology, micronanotec, and r&d.
I spent the week interviewing c-level staff from global energy companies, learning about new energy efficiency innovations (the theme of this year’s conference), and meeting colleagues from all over the world. Over the next week, I will report back my adventure on The Energy Collective. You can pick out posts from this series easily by looking for the red Hanover Messe logo. To spoil the ending- the impression that struck me most clearly in my Hanover reflections is that the US is losing tremendous value by sticking to energy and tech conferences silohed by sector. The US needs a Messe.
Hanover Messe- It’s A Huge Event
It’s hard to describe the scale of the the Messe. Lodgings are booked for 50 miles around. Hanover residents can make a years’ income renting their homes for a week to companies looking to stash their conference attendees. The campus of the fair is itself a small city. It’s at least 2 miles wide and is comprised of about 30 giant halls filled with firms and their “booths”. By booths, I mean small apartment buildings, often with full sized machinery (pictured). The Messe Campus has its own public transportation system, a giant press center, an array of restaurants, a small hospital, a store and a racetrack. Futuristic building design serves as a reminder that the 2000 World Expo was held here, and aptly frames the forward thinking mood of attendees.
I spent the week interviewing c-level staff from global energy companies, learning about new energy efficiency innovations (the theme of this year’s conference), and meeting colleagues from all over the world. Over the next week, I will report back my adventure on The Energy Collective. You can pick out posts from this series easily by looking for the red Hanover Messe logo. To spoil the ending- the impression that struck me most clearly in my Hanover reflections is that the US is losing tremendous value by sticking to energy and tech conferences silohed by sector. The US needs a Messe.
Hanover Messe- It’s A Huge Event
It’s hard to describe the scale of the the Messe. Lodgings are booked for 50 miles around. Hanover residents can make a years’ income renting their homes for a week to companies looking to stash their conference attendees. The campus of the fair is itself a small city. It’s at least 2 miles wide and is comprised of about 30 giant halls filled with firms and their “booths”. By booths, I mean small apartment buildings, often with full sized machinery (pictured). The Messe Campus has its own public transportation system, a giant press center, an array of restaurants, a small hospital, a store and a racetrack. Futuristic building design serves as a reminder that the 2000 World Expo was held here, and aptly frames the forward thinking mood of attendees.
Hanover Adds Huge Value
It’s no wonder the conference coordinators give companies an option to rebook for the following year before the conference is even over- it’s growing rapidly, becoming a more visible, more important event, and money gets made. Most booths were really little cafes with sitting areas- or full blown conference rooms where deals were done, industries discussed, and connections made. Indeed one area was set up specifically for industrial “matchmaking”, where cardtables were rentable at $3k per day. (right)
Companies spend major capital at Hanover Messe, and on Hanover Messe (the booths get pretty elaborate) because it’s an almost unparallelled opportunity to solidify global business in one stop. The more interconnected and global our economies, the more valuable events like the Messe become. Additionally, the vaue of having a variety of related industries all located in one place produces a Davos-like effect, accelerating communication and networking that gains even more momentum with the velocity of social media.
The US Must Make A Messe
In the US, there’s really nothing like the Hanover Messe yet. The US has conferences, but they are typically quite specific even within a sector: the wind conference; the nuke conference; the oil and gas conference; the solar conference; the car shows; the materials conference; etc. To really capitalize on the knowledge sharing that happens at these conferences separately, in what are related and often codependent industries, the US should create a venue that mimics the Hanover experience. This is at least true of energy sector; being able to learn something from Vestas and walk right over and ask GE what they thought of it was pretty awesome.
Maybe I liked Hanover so much because it creates the camaraderie and minimized learning curve in realtime that The Energy Collective aspires to do digitally, and by the same fundamental technique: getting everybody together and putting them in conversation with one another. Though the US is losing any edge it may have had in cleantech and energy technology to other countries, starting a Hanover Messe-like event in the US would be one way to spur faster cleantech and energy industry development domestically, and provide a huge economic boon to wherever it would be located. Your thoughts, Mr. Chu?
The US Must Make A Messe
In the US, there’s really nothing like the Hanover Messe yet. The US has conferences, but they are typically quite specific even within a sector: the wind conference; the nuke conference; the oil and gas conference; the solar conference; the car shows; the materials conference; etc. To really capitalize on the knowledge sharing that happens at these conferences separately, in what are related and often codependent industries, the US should create a venue that mimics the Hanover experience. This is at least true of energy sector; being able to learn something from Vestas and walk right over and ask GE what they thought of it was pretty awesome.
Maybe I liked Hanover so much because it creates the camaraderie and minimized learning curve in realtime that The Energy Collective aspires to do digitally, and by the same fundamental technique: getting everybody together and putting them in conversation with one another. Though the US is losing any edge it may have had in cleantech and energy technology to other countries, starting a Hanover Messe-like event in the US would be one way to spur faster cleantech and energy industry development domestically, and provide a huge economic boon to wherever it would be located. Your thoughts, Mr. Chu?
