Innovations go directly to your smartphone

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drinktec 2017, the World’s Leading Trade Fair for the Beverage and Liquid Food Industry, and the VDMA Association for Food Processing Machinery and Packaging Machinery are offering two new digital services that are unique in this form: the Solution Directory and the Innovation Guide. Both online tools help the user to quickly find the exact solutions and new developments that they are looking for and are tailored to suit the industry’s specific needs. That gives drinktec’s exhibitors and visitors significant added value.

What is it about?
Plenty of visitors are familiar with the situation: You have a problem and are looking for a suitable solution. In many cases, your only alternative is to tediously go from one exhibitor’s stand to the next. Conventional product directories don’t get the desired results if visitors don’t know which products to even consider. And if the problems or requirements are complex, only system solutions—not individual products—will do.

When it comes to innovations, the situation is quite similar: Every visitor attending the fair looks for them, but in actual practice, they are difficult to identify in the trade-fair “jungle”—at least the ones that are tailored to application requirements and could be just what you’re looking for. On top of that, many (potential) customers have their doubts when it comes to exhibitor announcements in flowery “marketing speak.”

drinktec developed the new services based on these considerations as well as surveys and interviews with experts and customers (exhibitors and visitors). They are digital, mobile and immediately available. The Solution Directory and the Innovation Guide, which are linked to one another, will further improve networking between exhibitors and visitors.

Solution Directory

What are solutions?
Together with the VDMA Association for Food Processing Machinery and Packaging Machinery, drinktec defined approximately 50 solution criteria that exhibitors can select from. Examples include:

Switching products flexibly and easily
Processing and filling products with care (e,g. vitamin content)
Efficient, sustainable use of water
Conserving packaging materials
“Free of” ingredients (allergen free, gluten free, lactose free, GMO free, dairy free)

How does the Solution Directory work?
Exhibitors select the categories that apply to the solutions that they offer. They are then listed as a provider under the respective category both in the online catalog (Exhibitor Directory) and in the new Matchmaking tool. Those who want to quickly find exhibitors that are relevant to their needs can search the entire range of exhibits according to solutions.

What are the advantages for exhibitors?

Having an entry in the Solution Directory ensures that your areas of expertise are visible in the respective category.
Visitors who are interested in the solutions in your portfolio will find you more easily.
More contacts and more potential customers at your stand.

What are the advantages for visitors?

You find exhibitors who have solutions for your application sector more quickly.
You can contact the respective exhibitors directly.
The Solution Directory is also available to you after the fair is over.

Innovation Guide

What are innovations?
Together with the VDMA Association for Food Processing Machinery and Packaging Machinery and other industry representatives, drinktec identified corresponding criteria for innovations.

They are based on ideas, developments and/or inventions.
They facilitate improvements and/or new developments.
They may be related to products, techniques, processes, technologies, services or business models.
They are successful on the market and benefit the customer economically.
They take social trends into account and may offer the end consumer added value.

How does the Innovation Guide work?
The Innovation Guide is part of the drinktec App. It allows exhibitors to indicate what innovations they have available and are exhibiting at drinktec. The innovations of a given exhibitor are not visible to visitors until they enter the hall in question. This prevents information about the exhibitors’ innovations from being released before the fair.

What are the advantages for exhibitors?

The innovation entry can be linked to a sector, solution category or product category. This makes it possible to find specific exhibitors more quickly.
Exhibitors can market their innovations on a mobile device and contact interested customers directly at the fair.
Exhibitors have more contacts and more potential customers at their stands.
Exhibitors who have an entry in the Innovation Guide also get an “Innovation Icon” in the online catalog.
Exhibitors’ innovations are only visible to visitors who have actually been in the respective hall at the fair.

What are the advantages for visitors?

Linking innovations to sectors, product categories and solution categories allows visitors to search for specific exhibitors that meet their needs before the fair even begins.
However, visitors do not find out which concrete innovations an exhibiting company has in its portfolio until they enter the hall in question. When they do, innovation entries are sent to their smartphones and they can experience the innovations directly at the stands.
Predefined innovation routes are visible on a virtual hall diagram before the fair begins, which makes its easier for visitors to plan their visit to the fair.
In the online catalog (Exhibitor Directory), an “Innovation Icon” appears next to the entries of exhibitors who have innovations on display at the fair.
Exclusively for drinktec visitors: Only those who attend drinktec are actually informed about innovations directly.

Statements about the Solution Directory and the Innovation Guide

“Modern, contemporary and innovative tools!”

Volker Kronseder, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Krones AG
“drinktec is the world’s leading trade fair for the beverage industry. It features solutions for everything related to beverage technology and showcases innovative developments. It is important for visitors to understand that so that they don’t waste time looking for things. The Solution Directory and the Innovation Guide in the app are modern, contemporary tools that make attending the fair easier and that help visitors find exactly the solutions they are looking for. That especially applies to smaller exhibition stands!”

Stephan Barth, Managing Director, Barth-Haas Group
“We are pleased that drinktec expects to set new records again in 2017. That makes it even more important for visitors to stay oriented at the fair. So it is great that Messe München has developed two new tools that will help visitors find what they are looking for even more effectively at the 2017 fair. Anyone who wants to know what innovations are on display in the hall that they are in can simply refer to the Innovation Guide. It displays a route through the hall that includes all the innovations—without unnecessary detours. The Solution Directory is helpful when planning your visit to the fair. Instead of merely searching for keywords, it searches according to the solutions that exhibitors have in their portfolios. The BARTH-HAAS GROUP will definitely be using both tools so that even more visitors find us.”

Oliver Hoffmann, Döhler Head of Group Marketing, Döhler GmbH
“The Solution Directory and the Innovation Guide are a sensible addition to drinktec’s existing Exhibitor Directory because they call visitors’ attention to the range of exhibits at our stand. The Solution Directory helps visitors search for and select the stands they want to visit on specific topics ahead of time. The Innovation Guide lists our most important trade-fair innovations and uses innovative technology to guide visitors directly to our stand.”

Markus Ley, AVP CORPORATE ACCOUNTS F&B EMEA, Ecolab GmbH
“Both—the Solution Directory and the Innovation Guide—are truly innovative aids. They allow visitors to conduct searches according to solutions and innovations and help exhibitors position their exhibits in a prominent and promising manner. It’s matchmaking at its finest! We definitely plan to make use of this beneficial and expedient offer.”

Dr. Reiner Brambach, Director Sales & Design, Enviro Chemie
“Customers trust our concept-development and technical expertise in water and waste-water technology and expect the latest energy-efficient technologies that conserve resources. They place special significance on optimum operational safety and a high degree of automation. There is a great deal of demand for system solutions with modular designs. So it’s good that these new services allow drinktec’s visitors to search directly for corresponding solutions and innovations.”

Dirk Hämling, Executive Vice President GEA Service, GEA Group
“GEA Group believes there to be a great value in utilizing the new Solution Directory and Innovation Guide. As a leading global engineering group, we strive to supply smart solutions to the beverage industry. These new tools will allow us to promote our solutions more effectively and gain greater visibility by the trade show audience. Thanks to these directories, drinktec visitors will immediately recognize which suppliers are able to provide complete solutions and the innovative equipment that will contribute to the success of their business.”

Rainer Zech, Managing Director, Albert Handtmann Armaturenfabrik GmbH & Co. KG
“We feel that the Solution Directory and the Innovation Guide are a sensible addition to the normal catalog entries. Visitors can take their needs and concerns to specific problem solvers and find the solutions that suit them best. This is an optimum platform for exhibitors and customer alike.”

Prof. Dr.-Ing Matthias Niemeyer, Chairman of the Executive Board, KHS GmbH
“As a global player and system supplier for the beverage, food and non-food industries, we are pleased that the Innovation Guide makes visitors aware of specific innovations on display at the fair. Thanks to this platform, the industry’s pioneering innovations will be the center of attention again this year. At a leading international trade fair like drinktec, customers not only search for individual machines, they search for comprehensive solutions. That is why the Solution Directory is a perfect orientation aid for visitors attending the fair. The new platform is very helpful, even for a company that sees itself as a systems supplier like KHS.”

Daniel Kramar, Event Marketing Manager, Process Technologies, Pentair Südmo GmbH
“I think that the Innovation Guide with Innovations Paths shows the creative strength of Messe München by utilizing a mobile application, which is a trendy method of communication. This solution will make life easier—not only for visitors interested in cutting edge technologies, journalists etc., but also for exhibitors because, for them, this is an easy way to stick in a crowd and attract more attention to their new products in addition to the printed catalog, advertising and other standard ways of communication. The app can also make attending the exhibition more fun for young people.”

Volker Till, Managing Director, Till GmbH
“drinktec was, is and always will be the leading platform for world premieres. The Innovation Guide and the Solution Directory give us the best prerequisites for perfectly positioning our premieres for our customers. This is an important contribution when it comes to the ongoing development of beverage machines and technology.”

Markus Lotsch, Managing Director, Rudolf Wild GmbH & Co.KG
“Innovations and integrated solutions are new food for thought, facilitate change and shape the future. The Innovation Guide and the Solution Directory address exactly these concepts, which makes them perfect tools for making new developments and integrated solutions easily for visitors to access.”