HANOVER and ROSENHEIM, Germany -- The first Rosenheim Ligna.Conference, a new event for the woodworking and timber processing industry, has been postponed until 2022. It was originally scheduled for October 2020, but the organizers, Deutsche Messe and Rosenheim University of Applied Sciences (TH Rosenheim), felt Germany's Covid-19 restrictions may well still be in place by then.

After lengthy consideration, organizers have decided to reschedule the event rather than take it virtual because they believe platforms that allow face-to-face dialogue are the best way to go in the wood industry.

They also decided against replacing it with a completely different type of event or relocating it to the Hanover Exhibition Center. Deutsche Messe and TH Rosenheim chose the Rosenheim campus specifically because the university is highly regarded worldwide for its quality wood technology graduates.

"The Rosenheim Ligna.Conference is all about people," said Christian Pfeiffer, Deutsche Messe's Global Director Ligna & Woodworking Shows. "Enabling real, face-to-face meetings and encounters is in our business DNA; it's our core competence, and the same is true of our TH Rosenheim partners. Given the current travel restrictions and physical distancing rules, and the prospect that they may still be in place in October, we will not be able to deliver on this vitally important networking aspect of the conference.

“And that aspect is at a premium after weeks or even months of social distancing, lock-down, curfews, online events, working from home and endless video conferencing. There's a real ‘hunger' in the wood industry for a face-to-face event. That's why we're postponing the event until 2022. We'll continue to run the tried and proven Ligna.Conference series in the ‘Ligna-free' even years."

TH Rosenheim, like its partner, would prefer not to have postponed the conference, but it accepts the realities of the situation and is already working closely with Deutsche Messe on the 2022 event and on its own showcase for Ligna 2021.

The Rosenheim Ligna.Conference originally planned for this October was to have previewed the three focus themes chosen for Ligna 2021: Woodworking Transformation, Prefab Building Processes and Green Material Processing. That will no longer happen, but these themes will still be showcased in the lead-up to Ligna in May 2021. Deutsche Messe will be providing initial in-depth information on the upcoming Ligna show's focus themes and exhibition highlights as early as February 2021 at its traditional Ligna preview in Hannover. See https://www.Ligna.de/en