Karlsruhe, Nov 10, 2015 - Exhibitors and visitors alike have judged INTERGEO 2015 a resounding success. Their feedback confirms host DVW’s own positive appraisal. With 15 percent more exhibitors and exhibition area and 16,500 visitors, INTERGEO, the world’s leading trade fair for geodesy, geoinformation and land management, has just delivered its best ever results. The feedback from this year’s exhibitors and visitors reveals how INTERGEO was received and judged. It shows that the trade fair and conference are seen as a useful forum for nurturing contacts with existing and prospective customers and business partners. INTERGEO is the number one marketplace for geo-IT and an unbeatable channel for business communications.
INTERGEO’s interlinked trade fair – showcasing the innovative geo-IT solutions of the sector’s global players – and international conference make it the most innovative event in the geoinformation calendar. INTERGEO really was the geospatial event of the year 2015 – as the results of its exhibitor and visitor survey confirm. Some 96 percent of visitors judged the event a success. Around 84 percent* of exhibitors had formed a positive overall impression of INTERGEO by the time its doors closed. “INTERGEO, held once again in conjunction with the German Cartographers’ Day, has written another chapter in its enduring success story! The 15 percent more exhibitors and floor space in Stuttgart, its constantly broadening international scope, and a thoroughly positive appraisal of the economic climate from exhibitors and customers alike all indicate positive growth in this sector,” says Prof. Karl-Friedrich Thöne, President of host organisation DVW – the German Society for Geodesy, Geoinformation and Land Management.
INTERGEO’s focus on cutting-edge issues and socially relevant areas of application is absolutely spot on, according to suppliers and visitors. When it comes to sustainable traffic management, intelligent and liveable cities, digital construction, a sustainable energy supply, effective climate protection or active disaster relief management – the suppliers of geoinformation solutions are all intrinsically linked with the processes involved. “All of these processes are “geo-coded”. Everything can be digitally and thus intelligently networked – which made Geospatial 4.0 the perfect headline for this year’s INTERGEO! The message is really hitting home that geoinformation is the servant of society – an indispensable motor for its sustainability and a future-proof business sector,” Thöne says.
At the INTERGEO conference, there was keen interest in topics such as the national geoinformation strategy, INSPIRE, mobility, the management of major construction projects, and strategies for and examples of intelligent land usage. Block presentations on Big Data solutions and the geo-aspects of the Internet of Things were seen as particularly innovative.
Cutting-edge market place
The sector welcomes the conference format of a networking platform with diverse opportunities for discussions and business communications coupled with specialist information. “Catching up with associates and customer care is interspersed with plenty of discussions with new contacts – INTERGEO is and will remain one of the sector’s key annual events. We’ve captured a great deal of interest in our solutions on the relatively young German market for basic geodata. This will boost our annual sales and also help us to further expand our market presence,” said Michael Arthen, Managing Director of CycloMedia Deutschland GmbH. Ernest McCutcheon, Managing Director of DDS Digital Data Services GmbH and a regular exhibitor at INTERGEO, commented: “These days, business still has a lot to do with personal contacts. We use this platform for very intensive networking and have had a lot of very productive discussions.” In the exhibitor survey, 85 percent of respondents emphasized the high quality of expert discussions they had conducted at INTERGEO. Ronald Heinze, who oversees magazines at INTERGEO’s media partner, the VDE publishing house, says INTERGEO demonstrates far-reaching innovative potential: “The Wichmann Innovations Award (presented at INTERGEO) was more hotly contested this year than ever before, which just goes to show that the sector is brimming with innovative potential. INTERGEO never fails to spot each year’s current trends. In our eyes, this makes it the perfect platform for promoting the Award, not to mention our own publishing house.”
UAS at interaerial SOLUTIONS
The wide range of participants included manufacturers of surveying equipment, apparatus and accessories and suppliers of surveying solutions and services (76%)*, exhibitors showcasing geodata and geoservices (23%), and suppliers of cartography and digital maps (12%) and GIS software and services (51%). Suppliers of photogrammetric products and services accounted for 41 percent and exhibitors from the field of education and training 12 percent of exhibitors. The number of companies exhibiting unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) has kept on increasing. UAS were cited by around 18 percent of exhibitors as part of their business at INTERGEO. (*Multiple responses were allowed in the survey.) For the first time this year, unmanned aircraft systems were showcased at the dedicated interaerial SOLUTIONS communications platform. Exhibitors and visitors clearly appreciated the combination of exhibition zone, aerial show and presentations program.
Compared to last year, visitors’ key interests in 2015 swayed more towards surveying instruments and solutions (59% versus 55% in 2014), and their interest in GIS software and geodata and services was at 46.9% (compared to 54% in 2014). About one-third of visitors came from public authorities and institutions (28% compared to 22% in 2014), followed by engineering firm owners and staff (20% compared to 22% in 2014). The visitors from industrial companies (6%), IT software and hardware companies (6% compared to 5% in 2014), architecture and the construction industry (5% both years) remained fairly constant. The number of visitors from energy supply companies (4.5%) was almost double that recorded in 2014 (2.3%). There was also a small increase in the number of “other service providers” (4.5% compared to 3.4% in 2014). Research institutes accounted for 2.6 percent of visitors.
International crowd with decision-making powers
There was a high level of senior executives in attendance this year. More than 50 percent of the visitors have a say in their companies’ buying decisions. The survey reveals that 72.5 percent of exhibitors anticipate good follow-up business resulting from their INTERGEO appearance. This year, again, more than one-third of visitors travelled from abroad to attend INTERGEO. A record-breaking 12% in total came from Asia alone! One-fifth (21%) of all visitors came from either Asia, Africa or America. The strong international attendance met exhibitors’ expectations. After all, 74 percent of exhibitors attribute great importance to INTERGEO’s international status.
Headline topics a big hit with exhibitors and visitors
Exhibitors and visitors alike praised the way INTERGEO captured the key issues of the day. Professor Gerd Buziek, representing ESRI Deutschland Group GmbH, said: “At the ESRI stand, we were almost overrun with visitors seeking information on 3D, 3D urban planning and online GIS. The interest in these topics was immense. We were well prepared for this, though, as we know that we address the latest burning issues in sustainable urban development and long-term viable traffic infrastructures. Cities will increasingly need to offer sustainable living and economic environments for the future. As key engineers of the processes involved, we are very keen to see INTERGEO promote this field even further.”
Disy Informationssysteme focuses on Spatial Big Data as a means of gathering knowledge from increasingly immense volumes of data. “Businesses and public administration are beginning to appreciate the value that is added to their data sets by adding a geographic context. Spatial data management is already being used to optimize organizational processes. INTERGEO addressed this trend in its conference programme and attracted the right kind of audience this way,” says Wassilios Kazakos, Head of Sales and Marketing at Disy Informationssysteme GmbH.
Dr. Ilka May, one of the Managing Directors of planen-bauen 4.0 GmbH, believes that INTERGEO provides a unique interface for guiding the rather conservative construction industry towards the digital future. “Topics such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) were set alongside spatial environmental data, the trends towards smart cities and putting information to new uses.”
Career planning at INTERGEO
INTERGEO proved immensely popular this year with students and graduates in the geosciences. Employers and applicants alike made very good use of the matchmaking services INTERGEO provides for companies and career-starters. The JobSHAKER events were generally packed to the rafters.
Take-off for INTERGEO 2016
Our sights are now set further north. The organisers are already working hard on focused, strategic advances for INTERGEO 2016 in Hamburg. “We will be building on our successes for 2016, but that doesn’t mean we’re hoping to rest on them,” said Daniel Katzer, Director Trade Shows at trade fair organizer Hinte. More than 90 percent of the exhibitors are expected to take part again next year, and about three-quarters of the exhibition area has already been reserved. “The focus for 2016 has been set on cities as economic and living environments, in other words Smart Cities and BIM,” they reveal.
