The second German composites trade fair had only a short guest performance last year. In 2018, the biennial trade fair “Experience Composites” to be held in Augsburg / Germany, initiated with the support of world market leader JEC Group (www.jeccomposites.com), will instead be conducted as “Symposium Composites” (www.symposium-composites.com) with a significantly reduced accompanying exhibition in the previous pattern. Additional institute and company tours will be the newcomer’s trademark.

“We have adjusted the event format,” confirmed Oliver Griesz, manager Marketing and Communication at Messe Augsburg (Augsburg; www.messeaugsburg.de). “All previous agreements have been terminated,” he added. The exhibition company will still keep the topic of high-performance composites in Augsburg, because it is highly relevant for the region. In 2016, the Experience Composites fair had 275 exhibitors and roughly 4,000 visitors.

“We had numerous enquiries from Germany,” a JEC Group spokesperson explained to Plasteurope.com, but there are already many industry events in southern Germany. This particularly refers to “Composites Europe” (www.composites-europe.com) organised by competitor Reed Exhibitions Deutschland (Düsseldorf / Germany; www.reedexpo.de), which had previously been switching venues between Düsseldorf and Stuttgart.

The Experience Composites fair then was meant to fill the gap when Composites Europe was held in the north, in Düsseldorf. Reed’s decision to be entirely based in Stuttgart (see Plasteurope.com of 11.10.2017) – in the immediate vicinity of Augsburg – is surely the main reason for the change in the event format. Even if JEC remains in contact with local partners, such as Carbon Composites (CCeV, Augsburg; www.carbon-composites.eu), the company said it wanted to concentrate on the world’s leading trade fair in Paris and on its international spin-offs.