Munich's monster grows global
20 August 2007
There is only one truly global show in the electronics manufacturing sector, but even Productronica’s evolution took a slightly haphazard path, as Roger Sherman recalls....
Way back in October 1964, when the Beatles were high in the hit –parade, hair was worn long and duffel-coats were all the rage, Munich’s Electronica was born. Munich then was not especially recognised as a major international trade fair venue, being thought of more as the place for fashion shows and beer (well, some things don’t change), and had yet to establish its reputation for holding events for the high technology industries.
Electronica in those days was, of course, for the whole electronics industry including the machinery for production, testing and measurement. The show filled itself, with little effort having to be made to acquire exhibitors; And it became very international. However, a major problem loomed: a waiting-list of exhibitors.
The answer to Electronica’s problem was announced at a hastily prepared press conference in late 1978 to announce the new Productronica, removing certain elements from the existing show. When pressed to define the product range of this new creation, however, the show’s director memorably declared it to cover “hybrid technology”, thus giving himself considerable leeway to expand the new project.
The first Productronica took place in 1979 and proved to be an uneasy mixture of machinery, with large areas devoted to the demonstration of different types of production equipment. Many of the old exhibitors were confused about the parameters of this new event and hedged their bets by trying to take part in both shows, which now alternated annually. Industry had not reached its current level of sophistication, so that the edges continued to be blurred between the product ranges of the two events until the mid- eighties, by which time three new halls had been built in the old fairgrounds; Electronica continued to expand and Productronica gradually acquired its own separate identity.
It was in the nineties, as the growth in communications technology exploded, that Electronica and Productronica became the two defining trade fairs for the industry; when the new fairgrounds opened in 1998, both trade fairs ballooned by almost 50% in terms of exhibit space and the numbers of exhibitors from all parts of the world. This November over 1500 companies from all over the world will be seen by some 45,000 visitors. The show occupies 10 of Munich’s huge new halls. It’s the world’s leading trade fair for electronics production.
Roger Sherman works for Pattern Ltd, UK agents for Messe Munchen International.
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