Embedded world 2014 registers record 26,714 visitors

From its inception, this event has continually developed at a high level. This year, 856 exhibitors from 35 countries presented themselves, displaying products and services for an infinite number of areas of application.

“Embedded world is a trade fair by professionals for professionals, a genuine working fair. It’s the international embedded community’s office. On show here were pure know-how and sound engineering achievement. Embedded world Exhibition&Conference 2014 was again a complete success. The increase in the number of visitors is clear corroboration. This event presented itself to the professional world as the most important and biggest show dealing with the high-tech theme of embedded systems. This trade fair is thematically one of the most interesting and pioneering events in the high-tech exhibition landscape. No matter where technical innovations are presented and what devices contain electronic components, embedded systems always have a part to play. Medical technology, the automotive and aviation industries, household equipment or mobile devices are just a few examples of the sectors and products," commented Richard Krowoza, Member of the Management, NürnbergMesse.

The whole embedded community was very pleased with this year’s successful trade fair. As many as 96% of exhibitors reached their target groups, and the same number thought the quality of the trade visitors was very high. As we can see from the most significant data, embedded world 2014 once again constituted a successful platform for innovations: 98% stated that they were represented with new products or product developments for the professional public. The exhibitors can look back on a trade fair that promises concrete business deals: nine out of ten companies are expecting a lot of successful business to result from attending the exhibition and conference. Just as many companies said on the third day that they would be exhibiting at embedded world in 2015.

Jürgen Ruther, Head of ITS and SE Business Units, Hummel, said: “For us, embedded is a very important and very good trade fair. It was a complete success. This is where we meet our most important customers. Discussions are held at a technically high level, and the target group is 100% right. Many of the visitors to our stand are developers, and this makes embedded world a genuinely work-oriented trade fair. We had the impression that this year a high number of new companies with a wealth of innovative ideas were present on our stand. That’s a very positive development. In 2015, we’ll be taking part again.”

Pascal Cerruti, Director, Marketing Programs and PR, EMEA, Analog Devices, pointed out: “Embedded world 2014 presented extremely dynamic trends in the field of intelligent integration, the Internet of Things, embedded solutions, etc. For Analog Devices, this was a great opportunity for business development and making many new customer contacts, and it offered a forum with a high level of expertise, where they could discuss issues with representatives of the industry.“

The visitor survey carried out by an independent institute corroborates the positive atmosphere in the exhibition halls: nine out of ten trade visitors were pleased with the offer and the organisation of embedded world, and 92% of all the experts in embedded at the fair said they would attend next year as well. When asked what branch of the economy they worked in, over two-thirds of specialist visitors stated that they came from industry. Other sectors were services, the wholesale and retail trade, import and export, teaching and research, public administration and the mail-order business. At 87%, the proportion involved in the decision-making processes in their firms was also very high. These data confirm the leading role played by embedded world for the embedded community.

The two prestigious and internationally renowned conferences, the embedded world Conference and the electronic displays Conference, rounded off the outstanding overall picture. For the first time, more than 1,500 participants and speakers came to the conferences.

Andreas Mangler, Director, Strategic Marketing and Communication, and Member of the Extended Executive Board, Rutronik, positively concluded: “Embedded world has developed over many years to become the leading trade fair in the field of embedded systems technology, and for us it’s the best platform for focused discussions with our customers about the latest technologies. Because of the combination of conferences and exhibitions under one roof, as exhibitors we attract precisely the technically highly competent attendees who we, as suppliers of technology in distribution, want to see.”

The embedded world Conference started with a special highlight: David Kleidermacher, Chief Technical Officer, Green Hills Software, spoke in his keynote address about the theme of security on the Internet of Things. According to Kleidermacher, the Internet of Things was certainly a natural further development for embedded systems, but they nevertheless had to regard the rapidly increasing number of components, computational units and embedded systems on the internet as a challenge for data protection and security. In his lecture, he offered impressive security mechanisms that prepare us for this development.

"The keynote address at the launch of the twelfth embedded world Conference was both inspiring and impressive,” said a delighted Prof. Dr.-Ing. Matthias Sturm, the chair of the advisory committee of embedded world Exhibition&Conference. “This good atmosphere has permeated the whole conference. Over 1,500 participants have shown an interest in the technically high-level lectures - that’s another advance on last year. It corroborates the importance of the conference.”

Awaiting these developers on three days was an impressive programme of ten parallel sessions and workshops. At these events, international experts informed participants about current trends in the development of innovative embedded systems. The 2014 conference focused on 'Safety and Security' and the 'Internet of Things'. This involved looking at current and future challenges facing developers of embedded. Thus the embedded world Conference again offered the ideal opportunity to establish contact with the leading figures in the embedded sector and together to drive forward the development of advanced embedded systems.

In over 40 lectures, including seven keynote addresses, exclusive expertise was again offered by Europe’s foremost information platform for industrial display systems. In Hall 1 in the electronic displays area, that was expanded to 1,400 m² for the 2014 fair, 46 companies presented themselves and their innovative products.

“We’re delighted that industry experts once again found our programme impressive,” comments Prof. Dr. Karlheinz Blankenbach, Hochschule Pforzheim, and chair of the conference advisory committee. “Ground-breaking lectures were held on current trends like touch screen, e-paper, HMI, display measurement technology, interfaces and technologies. So the electronic displays Conference again covered the whole spectrum of the scientific and technical side of display technology.”

For the fifth edition of the embedded world STUDENT DAY, the organisers had brought in not one but two spectacular individuals: Jacob Appelbaum and Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Forgó. Appelbaum, who became known as a supporter of the whistle-blowing online platform Wikileaks, inspired his student audience with his keynote address that gave rise to a stimulating discussion round “free software, free hardware and other direct action for a free world“. The Internet of Things was, in the opinion of the 31-year-old Appelbaum, far from being undesirable provided you ensured absolute anonymity and data protection. He said that they had to pay particular attention to security and preserving the rights of individuals as gradually more and more intelligent devices are connected on the internet. It was immediately clear that the students were extremely interested in this lecture: for more than an hour, Appelbaum answered questions from his young audience and discussed issues with them. He regarded it as important to encourage the next generation of engineers to use their knowledge and abilities for the benefit of mankind.

A second highlight was the keynote speech of Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Forgó. Forgó works at the Institut für Rechtinformatik at the Leibniz University in Hanover. In his address “Privacy & European Law”, he spoke about the legal situation pertaining to the use of the internet and also addressed the issue of rights in such spheres as Facebook and Twitter.

The next embedded world Exhibition&Conference will take place from 24 to 26 February 2015.