OEM&Lieferant Ausgabe 2/2018 / OEM&Supplier Edition 2/2018

141 Trade fair success made in Wolfsburg According to Schiller, impressive evidence that this will indeed be the case is the fact that last year, the complete exhibition area covering nearly 40,000 square metres in the Allerpark in Wolfsburg was fully booked within a record time of just six weeks. Furthermore, eight of the world’s top 10 supplier companies have signed up to attend the IZB 2018. When dis- cussing the trade fair’s tenth anniversary, Schiller reveals that in line with the occasion, this year’s IZB not only features well-estab- lished highlights but also, and above all, a multitude of changes to the concept behind the event. These new highlights include the highly topical focus on digital issues at both the trade fair and the IZB Congress, a new online regis- tration system, a new hall layout, brand-new premium partnerships, the current Twitter hashtag (“#izb2018”) and a new partner for the IZB Congress. Last but not least, this year’s event is also welcoming two countries that are being represented at the IZB for the first time, namely Malta and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The organiser of the trade fair, the company Wolfsburg AG, expects to welcome a total of approximately 800 exhibitors from 34 different countries to the event in October 2018. These include seven exhibitors that are also proudly celebrating their own special IZB anniversary after participating in the event year after year, Seven participating exhibitors since 2001 right from the very start : Coroplast Fritz Müller GmbH & Co. KG, DENSO AUTOMOTIVE Deutschland GmbH, DRÄXLMAIER Group, InPro electric GmbH, Kromberg & Schubert GmbH & Co. KG, Projektron GmbH and Schnell- ecke Group AG & Co. KG. Given the huge demand among exhibitors, the team behind the trade fair came up with a new hall layout for this year's IZB in order to make more effective use of the space available. “Not only does this enable us to positively respond to more requests for exhibition areas, it also achieves the best possible locations for com- panies exhibiting at the event in terms of their focus areas”, emphasises Schiller. The new Hall 1, for example, will be home to companies with stands focusing on this year’s main IZB topic, “Think Digital”, together with sponsors and partners, while Hall 2 will shine the spotlight on the topic of “Electrics, Electronics and Mecha- tronics”. The Team Leader additionally draws attention to the fact that the IZB 2018 will also be the first to feature a limited premium part- nership. Three exhibitors have immediately made the most of this opportunity to showcase their companies and highlight exhibits in a truly outstanding manner in Hall 1, namely the Ger- man company INNO TAPE, the company Mega- Tech AG from Principality of Lichtenstein and the Italian industrial corporation SAPA. IZB-Congress “Digital Car Revolution” Traditionally the IZB-Congress will yet again kick off the International Suppliers Fair. This year’s congress will take place in the Congres- spark Wolfsburg on 15th October and is being organised for the first time by the Institute for Production Management (IPM AG) in cooper- ation with Wolfsburg AG. The main topic of the event is the “Digital Car Revolution”, which fo- cuses on the three important topic areas of “E- mobility”, "Digitalisation" and “Fully Auton- omous Driving”. The congress programme features keynote speeches, interactive el- ements (in the form of master classes) and workshops. It has become a tradition that the final day of the IZB focuses on the Job Fair. At the previous Job Fairs, more than 12,500 interested individ- uals made the most of the opportunity to get to know representatives from the human re- sources departments of the exhibiting com- panies at Europe's leading trade fair for the automotive industry. The highlights of this year's Job Fair on 18th October will include in- dividual expert advice and the well-established free application portfolio check in Hall 1, which will again be provided by the Human Re- sources Department of the company Wolfs- burg AG. Job advertisements will be placed and displayed on the Job Wall in Hall 1 throughout the entire IZB. The tenth International Suppliers Fair (IZB) features plenty of new highlights “Think Digital” as a Special Theme / Improved Hall Layout This year is a very special year for the International Suppliers Fair (IZB) in the German city of Wolfsburg because it marks the tenth anniversary of the trade fair. When the event was first launched back in December 2001, nobody could have imagined what an impressive development it would undergo in just under a period to become the glo- bally known trade fair that it is today. At the IZB premiere, 128 exhibitors from six different countries presented their new and further developments and their range of products and services to 6000 trade visitors on an exhibition area covering 13,500 square metres. At the ninth IZB held two years ago, on the other hand, 800 exhibitors from 32 different countries welcomed nearly 50,000 visitors to an exhibition area covering nearly 37,000 square metres. “We are proud of this extraordinary development”, declares the IZB Team Leader, Stefan Schiller. “And we are confident that we will continue this success story for the trade fair at this year's event from 16th to 18th October.” International Suppliers Fair (IZB) www.izb-online.com Image: ©Wolfsburg AG Website Fairs