Tire Technology Expo opened its doors this morning in Hannover, Germany, and already it’s clear that the show will be the biggest such event yet, with 280 exhibiting companies, more than 600 conference and course attendees, and a total of more than 5,000 visitors and delegates expected in the Deutsche Messe’s Hall 2 over the next three days.
“As a show organiser, you’re always concerned that your latest expo may not be as good as your last,” said Tony Robinson, CEO of UKIP Media & Events and founder of Tire Technology Expo. “Remarkably, within 15 minutes of opening the doors this morning, it was obvious that Tire Technology Expo 2017 was going to be even better than our best-ever show in 2016. I’m delighted with the number of visitors from all over the world who’ve come into the exhibition hall right at the beginning of the show. It’s very busy and the exhibitors are happy, but equally importantly, the visitors are very happy. The show is full of the latest technologies and materials that people are looking for.”
Running alongside the expo are the established Scientific and Technical Conference and the new Business Strategy Conference. In a joint session, Dr Stuart Cook, director of research at the Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre in the UK, opened the conferences with a packed Robert William Thomson lecture on the history of natural rubber’s use in tires. That was followed by absorbing keynote speeches from Dr Bernd Löwenhaupt of SRI Europe, Cooper Tire’s Chuck Yurkovich, and Pierre Fraisse from Michelin.
Tire Technology Expo and Conference is now in its 17th year, and goes from strength to strength. “When I started the show, people said we’d have difficulty amassing more than a few hundred people from the tire industry in one place at one time,” added Tony Robinson. “Now we’re heading for more than 5,000. It’s fantastic!”
