Productronica, held Nov. 13 to 16 at Neue Messe in Munich, Germany, comes at a great time. Oktoberfest is a fading memory; Christmas celebrations don’t begin until December 1; and the last world electronics exposition called Productronica occurred a distant two years ago. The excitement of new product introductions kept full isles and active engineers busy throughout the long four-day event. The 43,000 visitors to this monster trade show had an upbeat attitude, and industry leaders predicted an optimistic growth of 10% for 2008.

By Jeffrey C. Demmin, contributing editor