Large Interest Shown By Asia In VISION 2011

Leading international machine vision trade fair draws 7,055 visitors - Increase in international guests - Medical technology and integrated systems gain in importance

VISION 2011 was once again able to top its best result from the previous year. More visitors than ever poured into the halls in Stuttgart from 8 to 10 November 2011, with 7,055 guests exceeding the 2010 figure of 6,752. 36 percent of visitors alone came from abroad; up two percent on last year's event. There were 49 countries represented overall, with every fourth visitor travelling by plane. This is where the advantage to having such a great trade fair location becomes apparent, with the grounds directly beside Stuttgart Airport. It was primarily visitor numbers from Asia that saw a significant increase. This indicates that Asian markets are becoming increasingly more important for the machine vision industry and still harbour great potential. "VISION is extremely significant as regards the internationalisation of the machine vision industry", said Dr. Olav Munkelt, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Machine Vision Group in the German Engineering Federation (VDMA), Frankfurt, and Managing Director of MVTec Software GmbH, Munich. In attracting 351 exhibitors, VISION 2011 topped the previous year's figure by 8.6 per cent. The exhibitors were also even more international – 46 per cent compared with 44 per cent in 2010. Through this result, the world's leading trade fair for machine vision re-emphasised its importance for the industry. The range of exhibits extended from complete machine vision systems, cameras, lenses, illumination systems, vision sensors, frame grabbers, software tools and accessories through to application solutions and services.

The visitors came primarily from the machine vision industry itself, followed by the electrical engineering/electronics, mechanical engineering, precision mechanics/optical and medical technology industries. Since the proportion of visitors from the medical technology industry had increased substantially in 2010,the ‘Medical Discovery Tour‘ was created for VISION 2011 and attracted 43 exhibitors straightaway with special exhibits on this topic. This proved to be a right step because the proportion of visitors from the medical technology industry rose from eight to eleven per cent. The world's smallest optical 3D scanner (according to the manufacturer) caused a sensation in this area. This hitherto most precise form of digital dental measurement and optical 3D modelling will be mainly used in future in dental orthopaedics and orthodontics. Whereas dental impressions could only be made in the past using unpleasant plastic impression compounds, this task will be performed in future by a scanner, thus making the procedure much more pleasant for patients. The Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Vienna won the VISION Award 2011 for this innovation.

Visitors to VISION traditionally have a high propensity to invest. They are also extremely knowledgeable. 85 per cent of the visitors at VISION 2011 said they were involved in purchasing and procurement decisions while almost the same proportion, i.e. 83 per cent, came to the trade fair with specific investment and purchase intentions. 68 per cent of these visitors were intending to make investments in the next six months. The figures prove that there is apparently high demand in companies.

Visitors to the event were particularly interested in components and ready-to-use machine vision systems, the latter currently very much in vogue. Almost every fourth guest (22 percent) wanted to know more about it. "The concept of VISION to provide system integrators with a platform has really taken off. The ‘Integration Area' has expanded from 14 to 22 exhibitors. There has also been an increasing demand from visitors for the incorporation of machine vision systems into production solutions. This is something that will also be included in the next VISION event," explains Thomas Walter, Head of the Industrial Solutions division at Messe Stuttgart. In total, 32 percent of all VISION exhibitors presented ready-to-use machine vision systems, primarily for quality control and inspection, however also for identification and robot guidance.

The visitors appeared to be very happy with what VISION 2011 had to offer, with 93 percent looking to return to the event in 2012. Almost all visitors, 98 percent to be exact, would recommend VISION to others. Just as many are convinced that the importance of VISION is set to increase for the industry or will at least remain where it is. This was also a reason why, for 39 percent of visitors, VISION was the only trade fair the attended.

The exhibitors were just as satisfied with VISION 2011. They were able to meet with their target customers and presented products and services for almost every industry. The focus was on machine vision solutions for 53 percent of exhibitors, another 4 percent showcased non-industrial solutions, while 43 percent of exhibitors equally presented products and systems from both areas. This was very well received by the visitors and the stands were kept busy. Here are a few opinions from the exhibitors themselves:

Torsten Zöller, Marketing Communication Manager Europe, Cognex, Karlsruhe: "Our aim was to present our new products and VISION is the ideal platform for this. We had both new and familiar faces at our stand, with noticeably more visitors from Asia, some of whom we knew and some we didn't."

Dieter Progl, General Manager, Neu Pro Solutions, Vilsbiburg: "This was our third time in the ‘Integration Area', we've been there right from the very beginning. We had potential new customers come to our stand and plenty of interest was shown in our company. The trip here has certainly been worth it. We are very pleased with how everything has gone and hope to enjoy good follow-up business."

Andreas Saarschmidt, Managing Director, SVS-Vistek, Seefeld: "For us, VISION 2011 was a complete success. There was plenty of interest shown by the visitors. VISION is a very important networking platform and we enjoyed interesting discussions with both our key account clients and new customers. Furthermore, we saw a very high number of potential customers coming from outside Germany. We are widely represented in Asia by distributors and have been able to promote the VISION event there. Our Asian partners travelled with customers to Stuttgart. Korea is one particular market that is very interesting for us."

Uwe Furtner, Technical Executive Board, Matrix Vision, Oppenweiler: "We met with both regular and new customers at VISION, some of whom had interesting requests involving high quantities. We were even able to seal a deal directly at the fair. Coming to VISION was well worth it for us, we will certainly be returning again!"

Dr. Armin A. Sulzmann, Managing Director, PROdesign, Heiligenkreuzsteinach: "In the area of medical technology, we were the only company at VISION officially approved and certified to meet the very high quality standards demanded by medical technology. Normally, we only exhibit at medical technology trade fairs, however our first time at VISION left me positively surprised. I held promising discussions with very many potential customers, and this was something I hadn't expected. Our first time taking part in VISION was an absolute success right from the very start and we have already signed up for 2012!"

Colin Pearce, CEO, Active Silicon, Iver, Buckinghamshire/GB: "VISION has become THE show to attend - not only because of the large number of exhibitors and visitors from all over the world, but also because it has become the centre of excellence for development, discussion and innovation."

Mark Pontin, Managing Director, Resolve Optics, Chesham, Buckinghamshire/GB: "Over the last four years VISION has become integral to our marketing strategy. We find the show attracts a wide variety of visitors from all industries and is certainly not restricted to machine vision. This provides us with a wide exposure to new customers that is not available from other shows.The atmosphere at VISION is very friendly. In the four years that we have been exhibiting at VISION, language has not been a problem. We look forward to VISION 2012."

Andy Long, CEO, Cyth Systems, San Diego, California/USA: "We have been visitors at the show for the last five years, and decided to exhibit at the Stuttgart VISION show to support our new UK office. The response has been amazing and the leads have been very targeted. We look forward to exhibiting year after year at this show. The business opportunities far exceeded our expectations in our first year exhibiting. In addition, the networking opportunities coupled with the great quality of leads ensured that we will exhibit again next year."

Gregory A. Pangburn, Chief Financial Officer, Imperx Incorporated, Boca Raton, Florida/USA: "Many of our long-term customers came to see us at our stand, as did plenty of new ones with whom we were able to do business, even with some from the US. I still can't believe how many interesting leads we had and the massive success we've enjoyed with large projects over the three days. I'm certainly impressed! For us, VISION is certainly the best exhibition around. We enjoy the professional collaboration with the trade fair organisers and the atmosphere that dominates during the event - it is truly unique."

Marcel Krist, Managing Director, Photon Focus, Lachen/Switzerland: "We used our visit to VISION as an opportunity to celebrate 10 years of our company and exhibited this year for the first time with two of our long-standing customers. We had a very successful time at the trade fair and enjoyed just as much networking opportunities as last year, or perhaps even better ones with concrete follow-up appointments made at the fair itself. We had the opportunity to meet with customers and interested parties from all over the world at our stand during VISION 2011.

Markus Hüttel, Head of Technical Information Processing, Fraunhofer IPA, Stuttgart: "There were seven institutes represented at our Fraunhofer joint stand. We met with a variety of interesting contacts with whom we hope to collaborate on specific projects. The visitors mainly came from the German-speaking countries of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, however also from the wider European region. VISION is also a networking platform for securing contact with other exhibitors. We had some very interesting discussions here regarding joint projects for the future."

Eunyoung Lee, Business Development, Vieworks, Seongnam-City/South Korea: "We were not expecting much from our time at the trade fair and regarded it simply as a chance to make our presence known at one of the most important industry fairs in the world. We are thus very happy with our decision to participate and came into contact with customers from Europe and the US at our stand. Around half of our contacts were new customers."

Tim Baeyens, Director of Business Development, CMOSIS, Antwerpen/B: "This was our fourth time exhibiting at VISION. We took this opportunity to showcase two sensors and received several specific inquiries during the fair. Many of our customers were themselves exhibiting at VISION, but there were also a few new faces among the guests to our stand."

In addition to the wide spectrum of products and solutions provided by the exhibitors at VISION, the programme of accompanying events was also very well received by visitors. The expert talks held during the Industrial VISION Days attracted 3,056 listeners, more than ever before (2010: 2,726). Also popular was the VISION Integration Area, as well as the "Application Park" and "International MV Standards" special shows.

VISION 2012 will be held once again at Messe Stuttgart from 6 to 8 November 2012, no longer in Halls 4 and 6 but in the L-Bank Forum (Hall 1). With its 20,000 square metres in total, the L-Bank Forum is just as big as the two halls combined and also boasts a gallery with 5,000 m². And those extra metres will be needed, as space is already tight now in December 2011. "There isn't a lot of space left, the 20,000 m² are almost fully booked up," explains Florian Niethammer, Project Manager of VISION. "We are delighted to be able to offer our exhibitors an additional attractive gallery area for presenting their products at VISION."

SOURCE: VISION 2011