Paving the way to high-tech

This year’s exhibition – the 15th “International Trade Show for Distribution, Materials Handling, and Information Flow” – continues with tradition by setting new standards with its accompanying program. It once again covers the entire spectrum of current trends with a total of 34 information events – including 31 expert forums featuring more than 100 speakers in Halls 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9 as well as a series of three live events – plus a full program of exhibitor presentations at the “Innovation Forum.”

The result is an unprecedented overview of available products and a forward-looking vision of the future of intralogistics. The themes of the expert forums alone cover the entire spectrum of current and long-term trends and technological approaches: Auto-ID and the basic technologies of RFID and barcodes as Industry 4.0 enablers, the role of intralogistics apps in Industry 4.0, new uses for driverless transport systems (DTS), business concepts for complex automation plans and warehouse robotics, assessing the costs and benefits of lithium-ion forklifts, cutting warehouse operating costs, the challenges of Industry 4.0 for smaller businesses, and the latest Logistics 4.0 research.

LogiMat 2016 drew 1,280 international exhibitors from 32 countries, who filled eight halls presenting the latest solutions and product developments for smart, sustainable intralogistics. The trade show attracted 43,466 industry professionals from 60 countries in 2016. 

In the 15 years since the fair first opened its doors in 2003, the trade show has evolved from a regional event to Germany’s “and presumably Europe’s premier event for the area of intralogistics – or what I would also call technical logistics,” declares Professor Karl-Heinz Wehking of the IFT Institute for Conveyance Technology and Logistics at the University of Stuttgart. At the first LogiMat, 160 exhibitors came to present their solutions and innovations. Forty percent of them came from the fields of software, IT, and identification systems, and nearly a quarter were directly involved in conveyance and storage technology. That shows that from its earliest years, LogiMat has served as a platform for providers to present and provide information on the technologies of tomorrow. In its debut year, some 3,700 visitors took the opportunity to learn about all the latest industry trends under one roof.

TradeWorld – a special strategic component of LogiMat with its own program of expert forums – features exhibitors showcasing e-commerce and omnichannel solutions for businesses in the manufacturing, commercial, and service sectors. Visitors to the exhibit halls at the fair can also find a different program of presentations each day on a wide range of topics.