On 22 October 2020, the first meeting of the exhibitors’ advisory board marked the start of the next “K” (www.k-online.de), organised by Messe Düsseldorf (www.messe-duesseldorf.de), which will take place from 19 to 26 October 2022. The approximately 20-member expert committee met to set the course for the world’s most important trade fair for the plastics and rubber industry and to enter the concrete-planning phase. The exhibitor advisory board supports Messe Düsseldorf in its preparations for K 2022 and advises it on fundamental, conceptual and organisational issues.

The exhibitors’ advisory board is again being chaired by Ulrich Reifenhäuser, managing partner of the Reifenhäuser Group (Troisdorf / Germany; www.reifenhauser.com) and chairman of the VDMA Kunststoff- und Gummimaschinen (KuG, Frankfurt / Germany; http://kug.vdma.org). The communication committee is headed by KuG managing director Thorsten Kühmann.

Though some responsibilities at Messe Düsseldorf have changed since K 2019, familiar faces of the plastics trade fair have been retained. Erhard Wienkamp, who has been active since 2002 as the divisional manager, was appointed operational managing director at the end of 2019. Petra Cullmann took up her new position as the division manager in July 2020 and is now part of the management. The position of project director for the “Plastics & Rubber” portfolio has been taken over by Thomas Franken, who, as a long-standing member of the K team, is also very familiar with the industry.