Automechanika Frankfurt reports more than 78,000 visitors from 175 countries in attendance at the show Sept. 13-17. It was the first full show since 2018, after the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting shutdowns knocked the show off schedule. The next Automechanika Frankfurt is set for Sept. 10-14, 2024, at the Messe Frankfurt showgrounds in Frankfurt.
In all, 2,804 companies from 70 countries exhibited at the show held at the Messe Frankfurt trade show grounds, Automechanika organizers said. With 19 hall levels and an outdoor exhibition area, it was easy for any show attendee to log an impressive number of steps. (Personally, I averaged 11 miles each day while checking out exhibitor booths and lost five pounds.) While I visited every hall, it was impossible to visit every floor of every hall in detail, even in the four days I was at the show.
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Detlef Braun, Member of the Executive Board of Messe Frankfurt, said with the results of this year’s show, things are clearly heading in the right direction. “Together with our customers and our international partners, we are optimistic about the future: nothing can take the place of trade fairs.”
At the CEO Breakfast event that kicked off the show, Braun said, “Not only myself, but the whole of Messe Frankfurt, really badly missed you over the last two years due to pandemic reasons. Therefore, we’re so happy to have you today with us, real life, in 3D. And making trade fairs in general a living organism and good trade fairs are the good result of perfect team play.”
At the CEO Breakfast, Formula One professionals Mika Häkkinen and Mark Gallagher supplied their insights and talked about lessons the aftermarket could learn from F1.
“We believe that Automechanika’s restart has been a complete success,” said Jens Schüler, CEO automotive aftermarket at Schaeffler AG. “Numerous elements worked very well together this year: not only was the new ‘CEO Breakfast’ format a hit, but there were lots of good events and considerably more visitors in the exhibition halls than we had expected. We were also happily surprised by the internationality and quality of the visitors. Many visitors took advantage of the opportunity to get a feeling for the challenges that lie ahead for the aftermarket.”
“The spirit of our industry has been very positive,” said Philippe Colpron, Head of ZF Aftermarket, Executive Vice President ZF Friedrichshafen AG. “We sensed that the aftermarket has grown closer together. We all understand that we have big tasks ahead of us and we are collectively open to talk and work with each other — perhaps more than ever before. Those personal talks with our peers and partners were a great highlight.”
This report includes some comments supplied by Automechanika.
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