Cologne -- ORGATEC came to a close on Saturday, 30th October 2010 with an extremely upbeat mood and very good results after five days in Cologne. The international pilot fair for office & facility was attended by around 61,000 visitors from 110 countries, who came to obtain a comprehensive overview of the trends and innovations in the global furnishing sector foroffices and office facilities. A total of 608 companies from 41 countries presented their solutions in the Cologne trade fair halls. Sixty-one per cent of the suppliers and about 50 per cent of the visitors came to Cologne from outside Germany. “Top-ranking decision-makers frommanufacturing and administrative sectors are increasingly using ORGATEC to prepare their investments in offices and office facilities,” says Oliver P. Kuhrt, Executive Vice President of Koelnmesse GmbH. “This, together with the event’s very international scope, made the trade fair a success for the entire sector. It clearly demonstrated that ORGATEC is theworld’s leading trade fair for office and office facility furnishings.”
Hendrik Hund, Chairman of the Association of Office, Seating and Office Facility Furniture (BSO), came to the following conclusion: “The trade fair has become more international. The customers particularly appreciated the high-quality solutions for smart office concepts involving workstations, conference rooms, communication centres and reception areas.”
Top-level international contacts
Nearly all the market leaders were represented in Cologne. They demonstrated their innovative strength with numerous pioneering solutions and concepts foroffice and office facility design, which met with a great response from visitors.
Exhibitors from all sectors were upbeat as a result of the high visitor turnout and the excellent attendance at the stands. The exhibitors also expressed great satisfaction with the large number of visitors from outside Germany. Higher numbers of visitors were recorded, especially from Scandinavia, France, Italy, Spain and South America. The exhibitors particularly praised the visitors’ very high level of decision-making authority. This finding is confirmed by the initial results of an independent visitor survey, which show that 87 percent of the visitors are involved in making purchasing decisions at their companies.
ORGATEC has therefore once again demonstrated that it is a “trade fair for bosses”. In addition to holding numerous talks with the specialist retail and wholesale trade, architects and interior designers, many exhibitors reported making very good contacts with representatives from user companies that wanted to obtain information on the latest developments directly at the fair.
The users range from banks, insurance firms, health insurance providers and the automotive, chemicals, media, and telecommunications sectors to large retail trade chains and German government authorities. Representatives — and in some cases large delegations — were sent to Cologne by many major user companies, including Airbus, Allianz, Audi, BASF, Bertelsmann, BMW, Commerzbank, Daimler, Deutsche Telekom, Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Bank, E.ON, Ernst & Young, Fraport, IBM, Lufthansa, Metro, Pricewaterhouse Coopers,Siemens and VW. In addition, the fair was visited by many representatives from government authorities and universities.
Great praise from visitors.
It wasn't just the exhibitors who said they were extremely satisfied with theevent. The visitor survey revealed that 78 per cent of visitors were very satisfied or satisfied with ORGATEC and 81 per cent were very satisfied or satisfied with the degree to which they met their trade fair objectives. What’s more, the fair's comprehensive spectrum of products ensured that 80 per cent of visitors rated the product range as either good or very good. This consistently positive response to the event resulted in 92 per cent of the visitors surveyed saying they would recommend a visit to ORGATEC to a good business associate.
The specialist trade’s assessment of the fair was similarly positive. “It was agreat accomplishment on the part of the sector and Koelnmesse to stage such a good pilot fair for office and office facility furnishings in a time of low demand,” says Thomas Grothkopp, Managing Director of the FederalAssociation of the Office Industry (BBW). “This success shows that Germany’s businesses are once again looking ahead and taking advantage of the potential offered by attractive offices to not just prevent illness, but to help boost performance and creativity. The trade fair’s thematic and presentation programme included competence centres for lighting, acoustics and media technology, as well as the ULTIMA OFFICE trend forum and the intensively prepared tour of exciting office solutions in Cologne. All of this provided the specialist trade for offices and office facilities with a wide variety of different opportunities for offering customers even more expert advice and supplyingthem with products.”
Enhancing movement, flexibility, communication and atmosphere in offices
In line with the slogan of “Better Office – Greater Success”, the exhibitor’s attractively designed stands presented innovative solutions for boosting workefficiency. Many solutions featured impressive open-plan offices that not only created an intelligent interplay between communication and concentrated work, but also generated a feel-good atmosphere in attractive surroundings. In general, the trend is toward multifunctional areas that can be adapted to a wide variety of needs as required. Taking their inspiration from public parks and urban squares, various suppliers therefore presented complete furniture systems that can be used for concentrated individual work, as well as for teamwork, meetings, waiting areas, or relaxation. The exhibitors displayed modular and adjustable furniture that can be easily moved or supplemented as needed.
Room acoustics in open-plan offices present major challenges for many companies. The exhibitors therefore presented a large number of sophisticated acoustic solutions, including furniture with sound-absorbing surfaces, room-inroom systems and room dividers or acoustic absorbers disguised as projection walls or pictures. Carpeting specifically designed for open-plan and team offices which are especially effective at absorbing sound in the frequency range of the human voice were also presented. But it’s not just a question of counteracting
noise, but also of doing something to combat the lack of physical movement in the office. Office chairs and tables therefore adapt to their users, and are also intended to promote movement.
Highlights: Around 61,000 visitors from 110 countries l Great international scope and high level of decision-making authority among visitors l Great mood among the 608 suppliers from 41 countries l Enhancing movement, flexibility, communication and atmosphere in today’s officesl Around 1,500 visitors at INSIGHT COLOGNE — ORGATEC Night ofCorporate Architecture
Source: ORGATEC
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