Light + Building 2016 Sets New Records: More Visitors, More Exhibitors

More international than ever before – every second visitor from outside Germany

Light + Building once again confirmed its position as the world’s leading trade fair for lighting and building-services technology. The world’s biggest event for lighting, electrical technology and home and building automation closed its doors on 18 March 2016 after setting new records. Growth was recorded in all important indices – the number of visitors, the number of exhibitors and the area occupied.

2,589 exhibitors (2014: 2,495*) from 55 countries launched their new products onto the world market on around 248,500 square metres of exhibition space (2014: 245,000 square metres*). A total of 216,000 trade visitors (2014: 211,232 ) from 160 countries made their way to the Exhibition Centre in Frankfurt am Main from 13 to 18 March 2016, to discover innovations, solutions and new products. This represents growth of 2.3 percentage points. “We are extremely pleased with this year’s Light + Building and delighted with the further increase in the indices. This underscores the significance of Light + Building as the world’s leading trade fair for lighting and building services technology, as well as the positive mood in the sector and the on-going high level of exhibitor satisfaction”, said Wolfgang Marzin, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Messe Frankfurt.

The level of internationality also rose in comparison with the previous event: 67 percent of exhibitors (2014: 63 percent) and 49 percent of visitors (2014: 47 percent) came from outside Germany. The best-represented visitor nations after Germany were Italy, The Netherlands, France, United Kingdom and China. Considerable growth was also noted in the number of visitors from Spain and East European countries, such as Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania, as well as from Turkey, India, Morocco and Iran.

For the industry, a large proportion of visitors from outside Germany is important for giving the fair a positive rating. Thus, Dr Klaus Mittelbach, Chairman of the German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association (Zentralverband Elektrotechnik- und Elektronikindustrie e.V. – ZVEI), said, “Light + Building 2016 came up to the high expectations of the ZVEI exhibitors: digitalisation, networking and energy efficiency were the key issues in all halls of both the lighting and the building-services sectors.

As in the past, German artisans made up one of the largest groups of visitors. Ingolf Jakobi, General Manager of the Central Association of the German Electrical and Information Technology Trades (Zentralverband der Deutschen Elektro- und Informationstechnischen Handwerke – ZVEH) underscored the importance of Light + Building as an extremely valuable platform for the electrical trade: “Intelligent building networks and energy efficiency are inextricably linked in this age of digitalisation. Both themes – and, therefore, the expertise of the electrical trade in these fields – were more in focus than ever before at Light + Building.”

Key issue digitalisation: exhibitors and complementary programme of events present the latest technology and design trends

The spotlight of this year’s Light + Building was on digitalisation. Accordingly, the motto of the fair was, ‘Where modern spaces come to life: digital – individual – networked’. The industry showed intelligent solutions and future-oriented technologies revolving around digitalisation and networking, as well as the latest design trends. In this connection, the focus was not only on trends in the lighting market and the influence of light on people but also on networked safety and security, intelligent home and building automation and efficient energy management. These key issues were also taken up in the multi-faceted complementary programme of events and enlarged on in expert lectures.

A particular highlight on the complementary programme of events was the‘Digital Building’special show. Realised with the cooperation of 16 exhibitors, it illustrates digitalisation in buildings using future-oriented technologies. The focus was on networking individual components and their systematic interaction in live operation. “For the first time in Europe, the special show presented a realistic, fully automated smart building. The Digital Building was created using application scenarios. Subsequently, the components and technologies were selected through systems integration. Light + Building is the ideal platform for a presentation of this kind because it is the world’s leading trade fair for electrical building infrastructure and information-technology infrastructure. Light and building-services technology are growing together systematically via the subjects of digitalisation and lighting control, and this year’s Light + Building offered an impressive demonstration of this”, said ZVEI Director Klaus Jung.

Ways in which digitalisation and networking can be implemented in the smart home and the latest developments for private households were to be seen at the ‘E-House’ of the ZVEH and its regional associations for the States of Hesse / Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland. “The E-House shows how a building should be equipped to make it suitable for use with green power. With the E-House, users can become part of the transformation to ecological energy by generating, using, storing and feeding electricity from regenerative sources into the grid. The E-House is an intelligent house because it makes users’ life easy. It offers greater comfort and safety at the same time as reducing energy consumption. In line with the motto, ‘digital – individual – networked’, the smart home shows how these three components can be combined perfectly with the aid of the planning and installation expertise offered by the electrical-installation trade”, says ZVEH General Manager Ingolf Jakobi.

Visitors could also see a demonstration of human centric lighting at the‘Through the day with smart lighting’ special show, which offered an overview of the possibilities in the world of smart lighting. “New research results have shown that light also has a biological impact and that people’s daily rhythm is determined by light. The lighting industry has taken account of this in its products and solutions with the aim of providing optimum support for people. Light + Building is the highlight where the sector presents all facets of the future-oriented subject of human centric lighting. In 2016, the lighting solutions for the various aspects of daily life focused on networking, which permits additional energy-efficiency potential to be exploited and, in particular, greater convenience and benefits for users. In the future, I believe we will see even more lighting solutions characterised by supplementary advantages and, therefore, new business models that will enrich the sector”, says Dr Jürgen Waldorf, Director of the ZVEI Lighting Association.