SPS Drives has a new name!

This year SPS will take place in Nuremberg from 26-28^th November, and last year saw 1631 exhibitors with more than a third from outside Germany. Sylke Schulz-Metzner, Vice President at Mesago said: “The expectations for this year are looking good, even with the current economic situation in Germany. We are expecting 1650 exhibitors from 45 different countries, and on top of this we are expecting 67,000 visitors, which is an increase from last year’s 65,000.”

Last year UK exhibitors were around 3.5%, with a total of 19 and this year that is expected in increase too. Schulz-Metzner expressed: “British visitors once again are strongly represented, as you sit tenth on the exhibitor list.”

Schulz-Metzner commented: “People come to this show to find solutions for problems they have in their company. The show has a nice working atmosphere that helps to solve these problems. People come here and find what they are looking for.”

SPS sees 60% of visitors come from sectors including design/construction and executive management production. “There is a good mix so you can find the solutions and the people that you need,” Schulz-Metzner added.

In fact, the statistics show that 92% of visitors found the solution they were looking for at SPS last year.

SPS IPC Drives was created back in 1990, in a time when people were told exhibitions were dying due to the growth of the internet, but the 2019 SPS show argues something different. “SPS is now Smart Production Solutions, but the strong brand remains. The event zones in on digital transformation and holistic approaches to Industry 4.0, that are clearly demonstrated,” Schulz-Metzner commented, “It is no longer just about components and products. Digitalisation is now a massive thing so this will be a strong theme of the show, and is clearly represented in the new name ‘Smart Production Solutions’. The show now has a strong digitalisation profile.”

The halls around the show in 2019 are essentially the same as the previous year with 17 different halls spilt into topics. To give visitors a more extended knowledge of certain topics though, there will be guided tours were invested three years ago that will run again this year with topics relevant to what’s big in the industry.

This year they include:

• Machine Learning and AI
• Product and Machine Simulation
• Industrial Security in Manufacturing
• Cloud Ecosystems
• Predictive Maintenance

These run every day, twice a day and over the past few years have gained a steady amount of interest. But new this year, the tours will now include use cases, real life approaches, and show customers what they can really offer and show that the solutions really pay off. “It is no longer just about concepts,” Schulz-Metzner added.

There will also be exhibition forums with an extensive fringe programme. Schulz-Metzner said: “This really allows visitors to see things from different approaches.”

Another example of this is the joint stands at SPS. Schulz-Metzner explained: “Joint stands expand the offering of information for visitors to gain more knowledge of multiple topics, and how they work together and interact.”