SEMICON/Europa to move

09/01/1997

Semicon/Europa to move

The long-rumored move of SEMICON/Europa from Geneva to Munich will take place in 1999. SEMI officials announced that the show will remain in Geneva next year but move to the New Munich Trade Fair Center for the 1999 show, scheduled for April 13-15. A move away from Geneva has been under discussion for several years. Last fall, the trade association sponsored a survey of show participants that found 58 percent responding positively to the idea of a move. SEMI hopes that attendance will increase in both the short and long term; this year`s show, which had 981 exhibitors, set an attendance record. SEMICON/Europa has been located in Switzerland since its inception in 1975; first in Zurich and, since 1993, in Geneva. The new exhibition facility in Munich, expected to open in April, 1998, will have 14 connected buildings, each containing enough space for about 500 booths, according to Rick Heim, SEMI vice president of operations and expositions. In addition, a new three-story building for technical programs and meetings is being built.