Heading to this year’s EuroMold exhibition in Frankfurt? If so, you’re going to the wrong city!
Frankfurt has long been the location of the annual EuroMold trade fair, billed as the “World Fair for Moldmaking and Tooling, Design, additive manufacturing and product development”. It has been one of the leading events for showcasing industrial 3D printing gear over the past several years.
Now, the fair is changing locations rather suddenly. Instead of their traditional US-Thanksgiving-overlapping date in Frankfurt, DEMAT, the company behind EuroMold, has changed the date and location. In 2015, the fair will be held in Dusseldorf, Germany in late September.
The switch will be quite challenging for vendors hoping to show their latest products to customers, as participating in such a large and complex event takes a year or more to properly prepare. It’s possible some vendors may not be able to switch plans and thus we may see lowered participation in this year’s EuroMold.
For visitors (and vendors) Dusseldorf is somewhat more difficult to visit than Frankfurt, which happens to have one of the world’s most well-served airports.
Further complicating the situation for vendors is the reaction by the folks in Frankfurt who operate the gigantic conference hall, Frankfurt Messe. Seeing the loss of one of their premiere events, they’ve announced plans to create a similar trade fair, Formnext. They say:
Messe Frankfurt is organising its own trade fair for tool-making, mould-making, design, product development and additive manufacturing technology. Formnext will be held for the first time between 24 and 27 November 2015 on the Frankfurt exhibition grounds.
For vendors, it likely means they must choose where to spend their marketing budget: either move to EuroMold’s new location in Dusseldorf, or try out the new Formnext event, or spend a bit less at both events. At Fabbaloo, we face the same dilemma: which show should we attend?
The most likely outcome is two diminished shows, as compared to previous EuroMold events. This could leave manufacturers interested in finding alternative conference events to showcase their products.
Via EuroMold and Messe Frankfurt
