By Jeff Karoub
Small Times Staff Writer
HANNOVER, Germany, April 15, 2002 — In its second appearance as its own show within Hannover Fair 2002, small tech’s profile remains, well, small. The microtechnology section has 350 exhibitors — the fewest of the exposition’s seven self-contained fairs, most of which boast between 800 and 1,200 exhibitors.
But what it lacks in bulk, it’s making up for in buzz.
“Of all the other sectors, it seems to be the one people are most excited about right now,” said Ellen McDevitt, project manager of Hannover Fairs USA Inc., the U.S. recruiting arm of what has been billed as the world’s largest industrial fair.
A case in point: Bill Stockdale, president of Illinois-based Sensor Prep Services, called McDevitt a few weeks ago. He wanted to be part of the microtechnology section, but McDevitt said there were no booths available and she could only offer space in the factory automation area.
“He said, ‘No, I’ll find a way. I’d rather be in microsystems — that’s where the newer, more exciting applications are,'” she said. “He wanted to be where the action is.”
Sensor Prep didn’t find a way to become one of the 350 on the show floor. But Stockdale said he’s spending the week meeting with potential customers of his company’s product: a platform of glass and quartz substrates designed for MEMS and biochip makers.
“This year, we’ll evaluate it … for next year,” he said. “It’s a good way to find out how to keep current with the trends. Like any cutting-edge, new technology, it offers a lot of business opportunities for the future.”
Microsystems’ growth at Hannover might not be evident at first glance to those who attended its inauguration last year.
The sector drew 300 in 2001, and organizers said then they expected to double that number in 2002. Making such a prediction — one obviously missed by a wide mark — diverts attention from the more subtle but no less important gains made in the past year, according to Christine Neuy, chief executive officer of IVAM, a microsystems trade association based in Dortmund, Germany.
“Growth and getting bigger is important, but also that things get better,” said Neuy. Her group’s joint pavilion includes about 35 exhibitors, mostly small- and medium-sized European microsystems firms. IVAM helped lead the lobbying effort for microsystems to get its own fair.
“It’s not bad to have a small increase of exhibitors and space. You consolidate things that are going on to make it stronger.”
For example, IVAM’s pavilion last year included several Dutch companies, which spun out into their own space this year. A dozen new exhibitors signed on to replace them.
Although the majority of IVAM’s exhibitors are German, the list of foreign firms is growing.
“We’re getting international,” she said, referring to the addition of exhibitors from Switzerland, Austria and France. Although she laughed at her use of the word “international” for neighboring nations, she said the fair includes contingents from across Europe and Asia.
“Our intention is to make it the world’s trade fair for microtechnology. And I think we’re a good way there.”
U.S. firms also are making their presence felt: In 2001, there was one American exhibitor in microsystems; this year, there are 15, and that doesn’t include companies that are still at the fair but have teamed up with a European subsidiary or other partner, McDevitt said.
“They no longer have to exhibit under the U.S.A. umbrella,” she said. “We’re trying to integrate the U.S. industry into Europe and bring it back to the U.S. as well.”
Fair organizers also have worked to expand the scope of offerings beyond small tech research laboratories and other academic institutions, which dominated the show last year.
They still have a strong presence, but McDevitt said she worked hard to get companies who “not only have a product, but also a product on the market.” She attended conferences, joined small tech associations and advertised with industry publications.
She said fair organizers believe that exhibitors with products are more valuable to visitors: “They can actually meet with a company that’s ready.”
Applied MEMS Inc. of Texas comes to its first trans-Atlantic trade show armed with two products and a service. The wholly owned subsidiary of Input/Output Inc. sells a MEMS-based accelerometer for structural vibration detection, micromirrors for optical networks and portable displays, and offers foundry services for everything from microsystems prototyping to production.
“We need to do it to be in the MEMS game,” said Howard Goldberg, Applied MEMS’ business and product development manager. “We think we’ll come out with some good leads, and meet with existing customers face-to-face.”
Goldberg said the firm, which has been making MEMS for a decade but operating as a separate business entity for a year, spent the past several months establishing a presence at U.S. trade shows. Discovering customers and competitors in Europe is important, he said, because “MEMS is an international business.”
The firm also is using the fair as a first step toward deciding whether to open a European sales and marketing office, hire a firm to do it for them or some cross between the two: “We’ve set up meetings to assess the best way to establish a business presence in Europe,” he said.
McDevitt said she wonders if the microtechnology section will enjoy the same trajectory as information and communication technology, which grew into its own attraction within Hannover Fair, then spun off into the CeBit fair, a high-tech show held every March on the Hannover grounds.
“It just grew too big for the sector,” McDevitt said. “I’ve read a lot of articles and literature that uses similar vocabulary to describe the potential of micro and nano to change the world. There’s always the potential it gets too big for where it is now. It could be its own show even 10 years down the line.”
For the time being, there are as many as 7,000 reasons to stay put — the total number of exhibitors at Hannover Fair.
“Microtechnology is a cross-sectional technology,” Neuy said. “Exhibitors can go from hall to hall this week. There are a lot of users of microtechnology at the fair — we want to mobilize those other customers to visit the (microsystems) fair, and the other way around.”
McDevitt said part of her job is to “feed the need.”
“The Hannover Fair is full of exhibitors who need MEMS but don’t know it yet.”
Related News
Election-year speechifying opens Hannover Fair
null
Reprints of this article are available here.