Lift Report

Achim Hütter, President of VFA-Interlift e.V., the technical sponsor for the interlift, also felt the fair and its run were very good:

“I am impressed by the enormously positive basic mood at the interlift 2009 and I see exhibit booth concepts and design that are even more professional than two years ago. And I am delighted to note the high degree of satisfaction among every group of participants. Against the current economic background, that is more than what we could reasonably expect and makes me quite optimistic in regard to the next interlift.”

The opening ceremony for the interlift 09 itself made the year’s changes quite apparent . All the previous such events had been held in the Panorama Room of the Congress Center. This year – appropriate for the occasion – the newly erected Hall 5 and the interlift were opened together in a joint affair in the foyer of the new building. Heiko Könicke, managing director of the AFAG Messen und Ausstellungs GmbH, showed his relief at the punctual completion of the new building. He greeted an illustrious crowd of official guests, beginning with Barbara Stamm, President of the Bavarian State Parliament, and Dr. Kurt Gribl, Mayor of the City of Augsburg. As the president of the association sponsoring the fair, Achim Hütter awarded interlift a Triple A+ rating. The first A+ was because the city had made good on its ambition to build the new hall, the second because you couldn’t hope for a better partner than the AFAG, and the third because the elevator industry has remained loyal to Augsburg.

Heiko Könicke’s excursion into the history of the interlift showed that many development steps were needed to reach today’s status and standing. The new Hall 7, opened in 1994, was just as necessary as Hall 5 this year. Without the determined involvement of the VFA and the AFAG, Augsburg would never have become the “reigning world’s champion”. A 68 % share of foreign exhibitors and 45 % foreign visitors among those traveling from 60 countries are really and truly figures that justify the designation “World’s Leading Fair in the Elevator Industry”. As a trade fair venue, Augsburg sees itself as a complement to Munich and Nurnberg.

“The table’s set!” With those words Mayor Dr. Kurt Gribl started his welcome at the opening ceremonies. In that way he summarized the difficult tasks facing the trade fair company – using the new and expanded buildings intensively and working out new opportunities for trade fair business in Augsburg. The project as a whole was shouldered in an unusual regional alliance and completed in the record time of just one year. Participating in the costs of the hall, in addition to the State of Bavaria, were the partners to the trade fairs, i. e. the City of Augsburg, surrounding regional administrative districts, the Trades Guild, and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce. Taking the secondary returns into account (all the income in the region triggered by an event),a successful fair can bring into the regional economy’s tills an amount running to the tens of millions of euros. Basingon this, he hoped the interlift 09 would be a rousing success. And that proved to be the case, as we now know after the fact. His thanks also went to the city-owned public housing association (Wohnungsbaugesellschaft – WBG). It developed a financing plan and had been heavily involved in the project. Appreciation was also expressed to the AFAG. As the organizer of the first fair to be held following the building’s completion, the AFAG was closely integrated into planning work. In the future Augsburg will be able establish itself as a “venue for niche trade fairs”since interesting scheduling dates are still open.

One date of interest to Augsburg is the FIFA Women’s World Cup Germany in 2011. The city is one of the venues for the soccer matches. That is why it was possible to welcome as a guest at the opening ceremonies Birgit Prinz, recipient of many awards, world champion, and world-class soccer player. In a refreshing interview she chatted about the encouraging developments in women’s soccer and about the high expectations in the wake of recent successes.

Barbara Stamm, President of the Parliament of the State of Bavaria, saw the successful and personable soccer player as a highlight of the opening ceremonies and applied the optimism Ms. Prinz radiated to the development and use of the new exhibit hall. It was certainly a risk-fraught venture and could not have been realized without the city’s courage to build a new hall in economically difficult times. But risk requires optimism and the interlift has taken the first successful step in this direction. Ms. Stamm’s plea for barrierfree accessibility and sustainability in construction simply showed that the elevator industry is on the right road since. One of the panel discussions in the course of the VFA Forum was devoted to precisely this topic. At the end of her comments she, together with Heiko Könicke, opened the interlift 09.

Edgar Mathe, business manager of the WBG, the property developer behind the new exhibition hall, then undertook the official presentation of the keys to the building. But he did not miss the opportunity to comment that – in retrospect – carrying out the project that, all in all, been quite fun, even though that was not always the case during the course of construction. To the musical accompaniment of the “Lechtown Kneeoilers” the huge key was brought out on a forklift. It was not, however, the traditional golden master key but rather – as is appropriate for a technical exposition such as the interlift – a huge wrench.

During the tour subsequent to the opening ceremonies the officials were able to get a feeling for the excellent booths and hear the international babble of languages. A good estimate would be that 40 to 50 percent of the conversations were in English – if the people involved did not happen to be from the same country. There were no startling, earth shaking innovationsbut closer observation revealed that many manufacturers had further refined important details that, taken as a whole, were then noteworthy. A special article in the forthcoming issue will delve into the technical innovations seen at the fair.

Due to the change in the circulation patterns, the industry associations and international professional media were in a new location. Hall 2 was superbly integrated into the circular tour. The trade journals have to express a word of thanks for the generously equipped booths and the excellent support rendered by project management.

The lecture room for the Forum was also located in Hall 2 and, as a consequence many participants, dropped by for talks at the media booths. About 1500 listeners attended fi fty lectures, delivered by speakers from thirteen countries. The series was scheduled and organized by Undine Stricker-Berghoff, business manager at VFA-Interlift e. V., and moderated by Werner A. Boehm. Included were talks on the subjects of standards and guidelines, new products and services – this in the form of company presentations, reports on international markets and on sustainable construction, and modernization of elevators. Simultaneous translation of all the speeches – into German and English – was provided. Accessibility for the handicapped and energy efficiency were the topics of a panel discussion that concluded the first day. A detailed report on the Forum will be found elsewhere in this issue.

There was a special display in Hall 2 on the subject of barrier-free accessibility. It was particularly intended to increase awareness of the problems involved. Able-bodied persons should develop their awareness to this group of problems early in life and young builders should provide for barrier-free access if at all possible from the very beginning when planning new construction. It would be desirable for legislators to place greater faith in the actors involved and not immediately impose stringent regulations in every field. The “Housing for Seniors Institute” was founded in Bad Tölz in 2003 with the purpose of developing residential models offering dignified housing for senior citizens and thus promoting independent living in familiar surroundings, a goal sought by many. The elevator industry has addressed this problem ever more frequently in recent years.

Anyone wanting to stay up to date on developments and obtain a survey of the elevator industry’s capabilities has to be on hand in Augsburg. Even though not all the renowned companies in the industry were on hand with exhibits, they werepresent as visitors with keen eyes and probing technical questions. The exhibitorsconfirmed, almost without exception, that interested and highly professional discussions were held at the exhibit booths. The interlift is an ideal communications space apart from day-to-day business and is extremely important for good customer relations. The many foreign visitors provided the exhibitors with excellent initial contacts to potential customers and give reason to expect good post-fair business.

Professor Ren Tianxiao, President of the China Elevator Association, presented a positive picture of Chinese participation. There is great interest in Chinese products and the interlift is both an important gateway to the international market and the driving force behind high export growth.

This positive impression was confirmed by a representative poll of exhibitors. Here, in spite of the difficult economicsituation, the good results of two years ago were almost matched. 66 % awarded an overall assessment of “very good” and “good”, 27 % said “satisfactory”. 70 % of the exhibitors intend to be on hand again in two years while 30 % could not make any commitments at the moment.

There are superb meeting rooms at the Congress Center and many members of various committees are in Augsburg in any case. That is why associations, organizations and institutions are ever more frequently holding their own conferences during the course of the interlift.

To name one example, the ELA (European Lift Association) convened a meeting of its Communication Committee. The work of the Communication Committee focuses for the moment on the accompaniment of the work on Energy Efficiency, developed by the ELA energy experts with the European Commission in the E4 project (Energy Efficient Elevators & Escalators ), as well as the communication on the new escalator norms EN 115-1 (new escalators & moving walks) and most importantly on EN 115-2, the new norm on the safety of existing escalators & moving walks. ELA will organize a forum in the fall of 2009 on the issue; which is of the utmost importance for the safety of users, since there are relatively many more accidents on escalators than in lifts. The Communication Committee also reviewed the next issue of the bi-monthly ELA News, to be published before the end of the year. The president of ELA, Michel Chartron, form the French Fédération des Ascenseurs, took advantage of his presence in Augsburg to attend the meeting.

It was on October 15 at interlift 09 that the constituting session of the VDI Technical Committee on Elevator Technology (VDI FA AUF) took place. VFA-Interlift e. V. supported the creation of this committee in advance and took an active part in its establishment. Klaus-Peter Kapp, VFA Board Member responsible for standards, was elected the new chairperson (HorstSchickor is his deputy). Kapp sees this committee as an impartial platform for discussion and is assuming that a great deal of knowledge can be generated and communicated. Fifteen experts will be meeting for one day, twice a year. The activities of the VDI (German Engineers’ Association) in regard to lifts will be implemented here and interfaces to other VDI technical sectors will be utilized. Thomas Terhorst, business manager for the VDI Construction and Building Technology Society, is very much looking forward to more intense cooperation with VFAInterlift, which had already been heavily involved as an external training services provider in conjunction with VDI Guideline 2168 on “Lifts Personnel Qualification”.

Also taking place on October 15 was the second meeting of the EFESME (European Federation for Elevator Small and Medium- sized Enterprises), held in cooperation with the ELCA (European Lift Component Association). The meetings were convened in the Panorama Room of the Congress Center. While the point of the first Congress was to introduce the newly founded European association to small and medium-sized companies, this year the agenda focused on showcasing the many activities carried out by the EFESME and ELCA.

After words of welcome by Heiko Könicke of the AFAG, there followed statements by presidents Jean-Claude Georges (EFESME), Matteo Volpe (ELCA) and Luc Rivet (ELA) as well as by the General Secretary of the EFESME, Giovanni Ferrarini.

Organized under the general topic of “Appropriate Regulations for Efficient Safety in the Lift Sector”, speeches were presented by several lecturers. Dr. Gina Barney talked about energy efficiency in elevators and escalators in conjunction with overall energy efficiency in buildings. Luciano Tattoli dedicated his speech to diagnostics in elevators and rescuing passengers from lifts. Beata Pich posed the question of whether there are to be amendments and modifications to theLifts Directive. Paolo Tattoli reported on elevators in regions of seismic activity. Valuable findings following the earthquake in Aquila were submitted.

Susan Mompalao de Piro moderated the event and simultaneous translation of the comments into four languages was provided. The large audience raised numerous questions during the course of the discussion.

Of course, the most important encounters at the interlift took place at the exhibitors’ booths. This is quite intentional, since it is only there that the customerhas the opportunity to see innovations unveiled on this occasion. Contacts can be made and conversations can take place at other locations.

Thus it has become a pleasant tradition that the international trade press gets togetheron the eve of the fair’s opening.Responding to an invitation by VFA-Interlift, the AFAG and Lift-Report, colleagues gathered at a small Italian restaurant at the edge of the Old Town. In the meantime the members of the press have gotten to know each other quite well, even though they actually see each other only at fairs. That is why it is always a rewarding and interesting reunion with highly informative conversations. The press can only hope that this particular event continues to be held.

The “Round-Up 2009” for all the exhibitors took place at the close of the first day in the Toscana Restaurant in Hall 2. A number of guests used this platform for interesting discussions. On the evening of the first day open to visitors it was possible to predict the final number of attendees, something that had not been estimated up to that time. The very slight drop in first-day attendance when compared with the previous year fostered the hope – which was then rewarded – that the number of visitors would remain about the same in spite of the difficult economic setting. Given this background, a relaxed atmosphere prevailed and one was able to sense the feeling of relief. Once Achim Hütter, Chairman of the VFA-Interlift, and Joachim Kalsdorf as AFAG project manager greeted the guests in their roles as hosts, everyone turned their attention to the buffet. Against a lilting musical background, some of those attending made a late night of it.

The second day of the fair centered around the traditional gathering at the VDMA (German Mechanical Engineering Association) booth in Hall 2, at noon, for “lively discussion, Bockwurst and beer”. The chairman of the Elevator and Escalator Technical Group within the VDMA, Albert Schenk, greeted more than 200 guests. The members of this professional association account for about eighty percent of new equipment business in Germany and Schenk noted that business had “been better than expected in the first half of the year 2009”. The widely diversified network involved in this association could be seen on the basis of the sectors from which the guests came. Owners and operators, planners, elevator builders, components manufacturers – but also the members of the accredited surveillance offices, notified bodies, the Trades Guild in Hamburg and academic institutions – gathered for lively discussions.

It is becoming ever more frequent for individual exhibitors to extend an invitation to “booth parties”. While informative discussions take place among the “busy-to-busy” during the course of the day, a party beginning at 5 p.m. provides a good opportunity to wind down in a cordial atmosphere. These events are concentrated on the second and third days of the fair and have found good acceptance. Mentioned by way of example, and representative for all the other party organizers , was the event held by CAN in Automation GmbH . This international association of users and manufacturers who support CANopen was founded in 1992 as a non-profit organization. Thirty-two exhibitors at the interlift are members and help propagate technical, product and marketing information associated with the CAN bus. The booth party offered a great opportunity to do exactly that.

After a trade fair found by exhibitors and visitors to be profitable and successful, one can look with optimism toward the future. The next interlift is scheduled for October 18 to 21, 2011. It is now time for project manager Joachim Kalsdorf to start his planning work and to promote the fair at the international expositions in India (Mumbai), China (Langfang) and Brazil (São Paulo) and at the NAEC Convention in the U.S.A. For every European elevator companies it is a “must” to make this a firm date in their calendars.