Feb 19 2004
The success story of the world fair bauma began back in 1954, with 58 exhibitors, 8,000 trade visitors and 12,000 square metres on the open-air site at the old exhibition centre in Theresienhöhe in central Munich. Now, fifty years later, the organiser Messe München sets aside no less than 500,000 square metres of exhibition space for bauma, in the halls and on the open-air site at the New Munich Trade Fair Centre. This makes bauma the world’s biggest fair for construction machinery and an international forum for the presentation of the latest building and construction machinery, building materials machinery, construction vehicles and equipment. With the recent addition of bauma mining, bauma is also an important showcase for a wide range of innovative technology in the mining machinery industry.
As it expanded, the world fair bauma kept setting new records. In 1956, the name of the exhibition – ‘Building Machinery and Equipment for Use’ – was changed to bauma, and in the same year the number of exhibitors and the total exhibition space doubled. In 1998 it set a new record of 1,700 exhibitors, 350,000 trade visitors from 133 countries, and 405,000 square metres of exhibition space. That was also the last year bauma took place at Messe München’s old exhibition site in the city centre. In 1998, as one of the first events at the New Munich Trade Fair Centre, bauma was a resounding success, with new records again being set. In 2001 bauma managed to exceed even those figures – with 2,341 exhibitors and 406,435 trade visitors it was bigger than ever. The proportion of foreign visitors has also grown enormously.
The outlook for bauma 2004, which takes place in Munich from 29 March to 4 April, looks good – new records could be set. 50,000 square metres of exhibition space have been added, bringing the total to 500,000, which would indicate that exhibitor figures could also hit new levels. Also, this year, a new feature has been added – bauma mining – which is a concentrated forum for the manufacturers and suppliers of mining machinery, taking place under the umbrella of bauma. All around the world the building and construction sector is looking forward eagerly to this jubilee event in 2004. Very soon, the call will be ‘Come to Munich – it’s bauma time’.
Source: bauma
Posted February 20th , 2004