INTERGEO 2008 another success story

24 November 2008, 2:14pm

Karlsruhe, 24 November 2008. Almost all the exhibitors in Bremen have already marked INTERGEO 2009 in Karlsruhe in their diaries. The three days in Bremen - where the world's largest congress trade fair for geodesy, geoinformation and land management was held from 30 September to 2 October 2008 - confirmed once more that INTERGEO has become a "must visit" event. The results of a study by the independent company Gelszus Messe-Marktforschung GmbH in Dortmund, conducted among companies on both the supply and demand sides, showed that 94 percent of exhibitors achieved their goals for the fair and that more than 90 percent of visitors were pleased with their visit.

Olaf Freier, Project Manager of INTERGEO and CEO of HINTE GmbH, which is responsible for organizing the trade fair, explained: "Having boosted the number of visitors attending from outside Germany to around 20 percent and the number of non-German exhibitors to almost 30 percent, we have succeeded in further increasing the international appeal of the event". More than 15,000 experts came from countries on all five continents to buy or get the low-down on the latest developments showcased by some 500 exhibitors.

Three quarters of all trade visitors who attended the event at the Bremen Exhibition & Conference Centre, which covered around 24,000 square meters, with the intention of making a purchase, said that they deliberately waited until INTERGEO before deciding where to place their investment. A quarter of the visitors who had come to the fair not intending to make any acquisitions were so impressed by what they found that they made spontaneous purchases.

Most visitors know that it is worth waiting until INTERGEO before making a move, as confirmed in Bremen by Petra Wagner, Marketing Manager of Leica Geosystems GmbH: "INTERGEO always plays a key role in the marketing planning of Leica Geosystems. Most product innovations make their public debut at INTERGEO." Almost 90 percent of visitors also said that INTERGEO provided comprehensive information on the latest developments. Many also value the congress fair because it provides a complete industry overview. Over two-thirds of visitors said that INTERGEO is the most important fair of the year for them. This is also confirmed by the distances visitors are prepared to travel to attend the fair. Fifty percent of those questioned said that they had travelled more than 300 kilometres. A further 34 percent said that they had travelled between 100 and 300 kilometres. Almost 90 percent said that they would be returning to INTERGEO next year.

Exhibitors are also likely to meet their target audience at INTERGEO. Just under 72 percent of visitors are decision-makers or have an influence on the buying policy of their company. That is another reason why Claire Geffroy, Senior MarCom Manager at Magellan Professional, was moved to say that "INTERGEO is the most important event of the year for us and that is saying something, because we showcase our goods and services at a lot of fairs during the year". More than 80 percent of companies in the geo-industry set great store by their participation at INTERGEO. During the fair, almost 83 percent of exhibitors said that they intended to participate again next year.

In addition to getting an insight into the latest innovations, visitors to INTERGEO also have the opportunity to gather information on technical data and special products. What's more, the fair allows them to foster existing contacts and establish new ones. "There is a clear trend among specialists in the industry towards more demand for advice on individual issues. Personal contact with the exhibitors has also become more important. There were higher expectations placed on the international appeal of the exhibiting companies," explains INTERGEO Project Manager Olaf Freier after comparing the results of the surveys compiled over a number of years. This fact was also confirmed by Jürgen Kliem, General Manager of the Survey Division of the congress sponsor Trimble. "One of our main aims is to offer complete solutions designed with the future in mind, which enable our customers to boost their productivity, maximise their ROI and tap into new business opportunities to ensure that they remain competitive in the long term."

The exhibitors also praised the high quality of discussions that the event prompted. These often focused on GIS and the special features of instruments, which attracted a lot of interest throughout the three days. There was an increase in demand for surveying and GPS software. The trend towards open source applications, which had been identified in previous years, was also in evidence in Bremen.

Hagen Graeff, President of the German Association of Surveying - Society for Geodesy, Geoinformation and Land Management (DVW), the organiser of INTERGEO, is extremely positive about the success of this year's event: "INTERGEO 2008 has shown how strongly the industry is currently developing. It is incorporating all kinds of different areas in order to be able to tackle the challenges faced by society". Graeff pointed in particular to this year's key topics: environment, geo-caching, satellite systems, flood protection, polar research and the creation of geodata infrastructures such as INSPIRE and GDI.DE.

In the "Bremen Declaration" from 30 September 2008, the geo-associations agreed to stronger representation of common professional interests, thus promoting closer cooperation and coordination in the specialist work of the association committees and cross-industry communication.

The next INTERGEO will take place from 22 to 24 September 2009 in Karlsruhe. The bar has been raised for Karlsruhe after such a resounding success in Bremen. "It is up to everyone taking part in Karlsruhe to meet - and ideally surpass - these expectations," says Olaf Freier.

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