VISION 2014 official report released

Months after the show came and passed, the official report forVISION 2014 has been released, and by all accounts, the numbers are enormously positive.

Shortly after the show, which was held in Stuttgart Germany from November 4-6, aMesse Stuttgart report indicated that the show saw a record number of exhibitors (432), and grew its number of attendees by 25%. Officially, that number is 23%, but all the figures surrounding the show are encouraging, and provide optimism going forward.

"VISION was an absolute success," said Dr. Olaf Munkelt, CEO of the VDMA Machine Vision Association in Frankfurt, and President ofMVTec Software. "We are very satisfied with the number and quality of professional visitors. We have received very positive feedback from all sectors of the industry."

He added, "Thanks to the new two-year cycle, we are also now able to showcase ourselves better with our innovations. In addition, we are extremely satisfied with the high number of international exhibitors and visitors. It simply shows that VISION is number one internationally in machine vision," he said.

The official report contains numerous statistics and takeaways from the show, but the following are some of the highlights:

• 77% of attendees thought the change to the two-year cycle was very good.
• More than half of exhibitors thought VISION 2014 was more successful for them than the previous show.
• 8,671 visitors from 58 countries attended the show, 39% of which came from abroad, compared to 36% the previous show.
• The growth in first-time visitors grew from 56% in 2012 to 59% in 2014.
• A broadened offering of technologies was well received at the show. Of the 432 exhibitors, 41% operated in non-industrial machine vision. This included the debut of the "Traffic VISION" showcase, and the "VISION 4 Automation" showcase, both of which received good feedback.
• Joint foreign stands fromChina (CSIG Machine Vision Union), Japan (Japan Industrial Imaging Association), and France (French technology cluster Pole Optitec), were all well-received by exhibitors and well-attended.
• The expandedIntegration Area (40 exhibitor compared to 26 in 2012), and the new Application Forum (Which had approximately 100 visitors per day) were well-attended by visitors.
• Industrial VISION days and VDMA Technology days were well attended. A total of 67 presentations took place, and according to Anne Wendel, organizer of Industrial Vision Days, each session was nearly full. (I canpersonally attest to this, as well.)
• The new focus onIPC 4 VISION (Industrial PCs) was a success. "We had many positive experiences: international visitors and excellent technical discussions. We are very satisfied. For us, the IPC stand was an excellent platform since we were also able to speak to industries which are otherwise a little further away from our core business," said Martin Krenzer, Marketing Manager Siemens, Simatic IPC/PC-based Automation.
• 83% of visitors indicated that they intend to invest in machine vision within the next six months, which underlines an upward trend in market growth and a promising look for the machine vision market on the whole. (Read more about thishere.)
• 93% of visitors intend on returning to VISION 2016.

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