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Hannover Messe 2018. Our summary: Impressive and informative ….. and make sure to wear comfortable shoes!

My activity tracker reads 54.51 miles walked over the past 5 days. The only regrets I have, are not having had more time to spend speaking with with (even more) exhibitors, and time to visit some of the other (10+) halls.

Diego and I walked the aisles of halls 6,7,8,9,2 and 17; in some cases multiple times to (hopefully) bring you what we thought were amongst the most interesting show snippets. I must offer my congratulations to the exhibitors; insightful exhibits, pleasant, open and accommodating personnel. Lots of (examples of) technology that highlighted values for clients, rather than on demonstrations of feeds and speeds. Technology demonstrations were highly visual, interactive and interesting, with a focus on understandable real-world situations and/or probable scenarios. Bravo!

Here’s our two penneth; our summary and key takeaways from this years exhibition.

Hannover Messe 2018 : Day 5. Foot spa required and a few more Hannover Highlights

You’d probably expect Diego and I to be flagging on the final (fifth) day. If you’d asked my feet, the answer would be yes, but from an information gathering standpoint, absolutely not!

From a visitor perspective, it was a slow day. The throngs of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were nowhere to be seen. What throngs there were, (as per previous days) centred on those with appealing stands. There were some stands/companies who shall remain nameless…but you know who you are…. that were, to be frank, disappointing and all the emptier on the Friday. Shame on them for having (many, MANY) screens showing text….no visual (or practical) examples of  products, no working solutions or graphic marketing messages. A lesson to be learned for next year perhaps? Continue reading

Hannover Messe 2018 : Day 3. The pursuit of happiness (and all things dynamic).

Gone are the digital gremlins of Monday and Tuesday. As of today, Diego Tamburini and I have finessed a workflow for uploading our videos in short shrift.

Day three started afresh with, again, interesting interviews. We decided what was wowing the audience were the use cases of technology on the stands, so that’s where we focused our much of time. Highly visual, as you’ll see from our videos. Continue reading

Hannover Messe 2018 : Day 2 More, great interviews and observations. There is life beyond Hall 7!

Hurrah! Today, we’ve made progress on the technology issues and thanks to those nice networking people at the back of the Microsoft booth for allowing me to plug into their LAN. life savers!

So, to today. We’ve ventured cautiously beyond hall 7 to hall 6. To be honest we’ve jumped from the frying pan into the fire. So much to do and say and we’ve not even scratched the surface. Will need to head back tomorrow for to get more from those in hall 7, after a brief foray into hall 9. Continue reading

Hannover Messe 2018 : Day 1 (Some interviews, the realities of being a digital nomad and our exhibitor challenges)

One never stops learning. Our educational snippets for yesterday (Monday 23rd) included…

  1. Never believe the internet speeds publicised
  2. Don’t believe that even if there is (any speed of) internet available, you can connect to it
  3. Don’t record videos in HD
  4. Carry as little as possible if you think you’ll have to walk the aisles at a big show
  5. Weather prediction is as random as ever

That being said, a fascinating first day at the Hannover Messe 2018. My friend Diego Tamburini and I took turns to interview some exhibitors in Hall 7. Hall 7, for those not in the know, is one of those showcasing the ‘Digital Factory’. In total there are 27 halls….. We’ll most likely be spending the majority of our time speaking and investigating those with Digital intent, halls 6 to 8, 2 and 9 to 22 . That is unless you, the readership, suggest otherwise? Continue reading

Hannover Messe 2018 : The Diego and Allan Show!

As of Monday 23rd April 2018, this is the page where you’ll find Diego Tamburini and my observations, videos, photos of our time at Hannover Messe 2018.

These posts may well be contentious, possibly interspersed with questionable humour and off-topic anecdotes; but always to presented with the (debatable) flair you’d (probably) expect from the two of us!

For Day 1 – Monday 23rd April, go here

For Day 2 – Tuesday 24th April, go here

For Day 3 – Wednesday 25th April, go here

For Day 4 – Thursday 26th April, go here

For Day 5 – Friday 27th April, go here

For our summary of the week go here

Siemens up-shifts their digital gears – Insights from Innovation Day 2017

This years’ Innovation day in Munich (15th December) reinforced, to me anyway, Siemens’ increasing focus on (industrial) things digital. Siemens’ digital revenues are now at €5.2Bn, and growth rates of 20% in software and services reflects the success (first documented in 2014) of their 2020 vision. Importantly, digital investments (including more than $10Bn software acquisitions over the past 10 years) are showing good return.  Siemens PLM Software, being one case in point; CEO Joe Kaeser brags of 29 of the top 30 Automakers using their PLM software, not to mention the fact that Siemens can honestly admit being a company that (successfully) eats their own (digital/PLM/MES/IIoT) dogfood. Continue reading

Exploiting new technologies in areas of robotics and vision systems – Is that innovation or invention?

I recently read an article about Diego Taburini (Autodesk) speaking on the evolution of 3D printing (posted here). One of his most important observations, to me anyway, was that companies might think to spend more time “exploiting the unique capabilities” of 3D printing technology. Continue reading