HOLZ-HANDWERK and fensterbau/frontale 2008

The exhibition duo HOLZ-HANDWERK and fensterbau/frontale, which takes place in the Exhibition Centre Nuremberg every two years, again proved to be the central forum for the wood crafts and windows, doors and facades - this time from 2-5 April 2008.

The fensterbau/frontale and HOLZ-HANDWERK exhibitions have taken place in Nürnberg at the same time since 1992. Altogether some 63,000 visitors attended the two events at that time. The magic mark of 100,000 visitors was just beaten for the first time at the 2006 event. The duo grew again in 2008 with a total of 102,881 trade visitors and 1,276 exhibitors from 34 countries (2006: 1,184 exhibitors from 30 countries). Thursday and Friday with over 30,000 visitors each were the most heavily visited days of the exhibitions.

‘Although many visitors have used the special bus, rail and air travel packages offered for the combined exhibitions, the large number of cars at HOLZ-HANDWERK and fensterbau/frontale is always a special challenge for the traffic guidance system,’ says Walter Hufnagel, Member of the Management Board of NürnbergMesse. ‘Although slow-moving traffic could unfortunately not be avoided completely at the start of the exhibitions, the electronic traffic guidance system in and around Nürnberg in combination with the many car parks surrounding the exhibition site and the shuttle bus service did manage to cope with the peaks.’

There was not only lively traffic around the exhibition site during the four days, but above all on the stands of the exhibitors. Nine out of ten companies said they had made new business connections and just as many expect follow-up business; four out of ten exhibitors at fensterbau/frontale and as many as six out of ten at HOLZ-HANDWERK made direct sales during the exhibition. 88 per cent of the HOLZ-HANDWERK exhibitors and 96 per cent of the fensterbau/frontale exhibitors welcomed visitors from countries other than Germany. These came mainly from Austria, Italy, France and Switzerland for HOLZ-HANDWERK and for fensterbau/frontale from Austria, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Italy, Switzerland, the Russian Federation, Great Britain, Denmark, Spain, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Hungary and the Netherlands, but also from the USA and Canada, Argentina, China, India, Japan and the United Arab Emirates. Nine out of ten exhibitors rated the professional competence of the visitors as satisfactory to very good, and well over 90 per cent said they had reached their major target groups at the two exhibitions.

HOLZ-HANDWERK: 100 per cent better mood
HOLZ-HANDWERK again attracted a large number of mainly carpenters and joiners. 516 exhibitors presented a comprehensive spectrum of products and services for the wood crafts - from manual tools to CNC machines and materials to technical literature. ‘The fact that things are going so well again in Germany is an excellent indication for the domestic economy,’ says Dr. Bernhard Dirr, General Manager of the Fachverband Holzbearbeitungsmaschinen im VDMA. ‘The mood was 100 per cent better than at the exhibition two years ago,’ agrees Konrad Steininger, President of the Fachverband Schreinerhandwerk Bayern. The survey of exhibitors and visitors during HOLZ-HANDWERK supports this feeling: around one third of the interviewees think the business situation is stable and over 40 per cent of the exhibitors and almost half the visitors see a rising trend.

‘Modern handcraft involves the synchronous use of head, hands and machine,’ said Wilfried Altendorf, Managing Director of Wilhelm Altendorf GmbH & Co. KG and Chairman of the HOLZ-HANDWERK Exhibition Committee, in his speech at the opening of the exhibition duo in the old city hall in Nürnberg. In view of this, the great need for information and the new willingness to invest are understandable. 90 per cent of the visitors were satisfied with the opportunities for obtaining information at HOLZ-HANDWERK; eight out of ten are involved in procurement decisions in their firm, and just as many felt the desire to use new products seen at the exhibition. The live demonstrations of new products and innovations at the VDMA's action forum vector and the ProWood Trust, the special show on light construction and the marketing tips on the stand of the Fachverband Schreinerhandwerk Bayern also helped in this respect. The great importance of HOLZ-HANDWERK is underlined by the fact that half the visitors said this is the only wood crafts exhibition they visit.

fensterbau/frontale: Bigger and clearer layout
fensterbau/frontale 2008 presented a completely new hall plan: ‘The integration of new exhibition halls at fensterbau/frontale made it possible to enlarge the effectively used net display area and optimize the arrangement of the product segments,’ says Claus Rättich, Member of the Management Board of NürnbergMesse, explaining the totally new allocation. This rearrangement also enabled the routing through the halls to be improved. These measures created a pleasant atmosphere for informative talks and negotiations despite some 20 per cent more products from the 760 exhibitors.

A good half of the visitors at fensterbau/frontale 2008 came from the craft trades, mainly glaziers and window-makers, building joiners, furniture-makers and metalworkers, and another quarter came from the industry. The journey to Nürnberg was also worthwhile for architects and interior designers: The highlights of the extensive supporting programme included events for specific target groups, like the 4th Forum Architecture - Windows - Facades with some 800 participants, the metallbauTreff get-together and the conference on ‘Glass bonding in window production - from experiment to state of the art’, which took place before a packed house.

The special shows organised by the Landesinnungsverband des Bayerischen Glaserhandwerks and the Bundesverband Flachglas, the Fachverband Glas Fenster Fassade Baden-Württemberg, the ift Rosenheim and the Karlsruhe Academy of Glass, Window and Facade Technology focused on energy conservation with glass and climate protection. ‘Substantial potential for energy conservation still exists in the building sector,' says Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Karl Kress, Chairman of the Fachverband Glas Fenster Fassade Baden-Württemberg. 'To reach the defined intergovernmental climate protection targets, it is planned to increase the energy conservation requirements in the building sector by an average of 30 per cent.’

International cooperation: GFA - Global Fair Alliance
With the signing of the 'Global Fair Alliance' at fensterbau/frontale 2008 on 3rd April 2008, four organisers of leading international exhibitions from Asia, Europe, North America and Eurasia have laid the foundation for global cooperation. The first phase of the cooperation is fixed at ten years and includes the coordination of the dates of Fenestration China, fensterbau/frontale in Nürnberg, GlassBuild America and Istanbul Window/Turkey.
Information on the cooperation between the four partners is available online at http://www.global-fair-alliance.com.

The next fensterbau/frontale and HOLZ-HANDWERK duo takes place in the Exhibition Centre Nuremberg in March 2010.