Afag GmbH
We’re satisfied with the way things went at MOTEK 2009. Economic conditions are difficult this year in general, and you participate at trade fairs with reduced expectations as a result. Nevertheless, the Afag booth was well visited – as usual – especially as of the second day. The quality of the customers was very good, and we had a variety of well founded RFQs. Many of our discussions dealt with mid-term plans, or were targeted at the future. In summing up we we’d say there’s a slight indication of minor growth, but the customers aren’t yet showing any signs of euphoria.
Michael Dörr, managing director of Afag GmbH, Leonberg, Germany
Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences with reference to the theme parks
As a university of applied sciences, we’re participating at this year’s MOTEK within the framework of the new “Mechatronics” theme park, and we’re fully convinced by this sort of mutual presentation offered cooperatively by universities, institutions and business enterprises. We’ve had lots of interesting discussions and contacts – with potential new scientific talent as well as with industry representatives. We feel that “theme parks” are a very good idea, and would like to see them continue in the future in their current form.
Professor Dr.–Ing. Michael C. Wilhelm, Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences
MISUMI Europa GmbH
We had large numbers of visitors here at MOTEK 2009, and we’re very satisfied as a result. We see our participation at the trade fair as an image presentation for the most part, and visitors at our booth have primarily been new customers with strong potential. Our target group is special machinery manufacturing, and MOTEK’s location is ideal for us in this respect. We’re at the heart of our market here in Stuttgart. Due to the fact that we supply custom tailored solutions, our products are in demand in difficult times like these too. Of course we’re complaining as well, but at a high level.
Stefan Pulver, director of sales and marketing, authorised signatory,
MISUMI Europa GmbH, Schwalbach, Germany
Festo AG & Co. KG
All in all we’re very satisfied with the way things have gone at Motek 2009 – especially in light of current economic conditions. The fact that one or the other of our competitors didn’t exhibit can be seen in two different ways: On the one hand, our own company is that much more in the limelight, but on the other hand, of course, the presence of competitors stimulates business. Trade fairs have always had something to do with measuring oneself, or at least this was the original idea.
We had surprisingly large numbers of visitors at our booth, and visitor quality has improved again as well. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that this year’s Motek visitors are predominantly optimists who are looking to the future. For this reason, we were able to welcome lots of important customers and contact persons to our booth. Out exhibition focal points matched up with their current interests and challenges. There were lots of well founded customer leads, and concrete RFQs and projects have been launched.
Martin Lude, director of marketing services, Festo AG & Co. KG, Esslingen, Germany
J. Schmalz GmbH
We’ve been pleasantly surprised with the number of expert visitors in this economically difficult year. And the quality is good as well. Although fewer decisions to buy were made than has been the case in previous years, we established large numbers of new contacts with concrete RFQs and projects. We very much like the good mixture of decision makers and practitioners amongst MOTEK’s visitors. On the whole we’re quite satisfied, and our presentation at the trade fair has paid off. The supplementary offerings provided by the congress and the theme parts emphasise the high standards of this trade fair, and they’re important. In my opinion, the transfer of knowledge should be expanded to an even greater extent.
Dr. Kurt Schmalz, managing director, J. Schmalz GmbH, Glatten, Germany
ABB
We’re presenting a world’s first at this year at MOTEK: the IRB 120, our smallest, highly compact, extremely agile 6-axis robot, which we’re introducing within the framework of the “Microsystems Technology” theme park in hall 1. Of course this has already generated strong interest amongst the expert visitors. All in all we find that MOTEK 2009 has been very well frequented by highly interested visitors. There’s been a good mixture of experts with concrete interests with whom we’ve had well founded discussions, and visitors who wanted to gather initial information. For us, it’s been a good mix which fits into our concept.
Beat Stahel, robotics sales engineer, ABB Schweiz AG, Zurich, Switzerland
Schnaithmann Maschinenbau GmbH
We’ve been exhibiting at MOTEK for 20 years now. We arrived this year with very cautious expectations due to the general economic conditions. But right from the very first day we had so many visitors at our booth that we really felt like a new era was dawning. We have the feeling that we’ve made real headway thanks to our trade fair appearance. In our conversations with the visitors we also detected that things were getting started again within the industry. You do your best to push things ahead. We had lots of decision makers at our booth with RFQs, most of which won’t bear fruit until the mid-term, but people are nevertheless getting back together again and want to establish long-term, dependable business relations.
Karl Schnaithmann, managing director, Schnaithmann Maschinenbau GmbH, Remshalden, Germany
BONFIGLIOLI Deutschland GmbH
We’re very satisfied with our booth location here in hall 9. For years now, MOTEK has been extremely interesting for us. For us it has the character of a true working trade fair: Experts, including lots of mid-sized companies, come to our booth who want to discuss concrete projects. Our visitors here comprise a good mixture of existing customers and new users. Of course you sense the fact that the crisis doesn’t stop at MOTEK’s door, be we see this as a temporary situation. The trade fair location in Stuttgart is ideal for us, because we reach customers and potential users from southern Germany and Austria here. As far as travel connections and logistics are concerned, as well as on-site assistance, the new trade fair centre is great. MOTEK is one of our four primary trade fairs in Germany.
Michael Endemann, sales manager, BONFIGLIOLI Deutschland GmbH, Neuss, Germany
OKU GmbH
As expected, we had fewer leads at this year’s MOTEK than we did in 2008 due to the overall economic situation. Where feed technology is concerned, which is an important part of our product range, things went very well at the event. In contrast, things were sluggish with regard to machines, although we’re getting greatly varied feedback from our customers at the moment, depending upon which sector their involved with. At any rate, we have a positive outlook for the future!
Jochen Pfleiderer, sales manager, OKU GmbH, Winterbach, Germany
STEIN Automation GmbH
Our company hasn’t noticed the effects of the crisis at MOTEK 2009. We even had more potential customers than we did in previous years. In this respect we’re entirely satisfied with the way things have gone at this year’s MOTEK. Good organisation provided by the promoter is also big plus, as is improved visitor flow throughout the entire day. You can also sense the effects of the broad-based, successful public relations work which is carried out for MOTEK – right on up to prominent personalities on location from the business community, associations, institutions and politics. In conclusion, MOTEK 2009 has been especially successful for us: 30 to 40% more leads than last year speak for themselves.
Peter Stein, managing director, STEIN Automation GmbH & Co. KG,
VS-Schwenningen, Germany
“Microsystems Technology” Theme Park
MicroMountains Application AG
As co-initiator of the first “Microsystems Technology” theme park at this year’s MOTEK, we’re able to report a very good launch. We’re currently putting together a summary of how things have gone at the theme park. The fact that it’s been possible to establish interesting contacts at our communal booth for business enterprises, institutions and universities, which otherwise would never have materialised, has received especially good ratings from our co-exhibitors. Demonstrating interest in the field of microsystems technology pays off, and we’re fully convinced that many sectors, and in particular handling and assembly technology, will have to get involved with the trend towards miniaturisation, because enormous future potential lies dormant in this area.
Dr.-Ing. Thomas Link, chairman of the board, MicroMountains Applications AG, Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany
HOLZ automation
We dreamed up a special eye-catcher for MOTEK 2009. We’re special machinery manufacturers and we exhibited a robot which functions as a “election machine”. Each visitor at our booth had the opportunity of “voting for” a political party by selecting a colour-coded ball at a manual workstation. The balls on their workpiece carriers were then tossed into the appropriate party container by a SCARA robot at a downstream, automated station. The “election machine” proved to be a real crowd-puller – even minister for economic affairs Ernst Pfister was impressed by our “election survey” system during his tour of the trade fair. The strange thing is that the 700 votes cast by the robot corresponded quite accurately to the actual proportions of the election results in Baden-Württemberg. Our election machine also demonstrated the fact that complaining about the all-pervading crisis alone won’t help – we all just have to be that much more creative. Although we had the impression that there were fewer visitors at the trade fair than in 2008, there were more qualified experts on hand than last year. In summing up, we’re very pleased that we exhibited this year, although we were hesitant at first.
PS: The “MOTEK election results”, as well as a short trailer of the “election machine”, can be viewed at our website at www.holz-automation.de.
Dipl.-Ing (FH) Jürgen Holz, managing director, HOLZ automation GmbH, Backnang, Germany
Six Offene Systeme GmbH
