“Regional satellites of MEDTEC Europe”

Event organisers UBM Canon, the force behind MEDTEC France, MEDTEC UK and MEDTEC Ireland, are staging their first MEDTEC Italy in Modena in 2012. Christian Klein, editor in charge of meditec INTERNATIONAL asked Gregor Bischkopf (picture), the fair manager responsible for MEDTEC Europe, about the concept underlying this new venture.

Mr. Bischkopf, hasn’t MEDTEC Europe, due to run from 13 to 15 March 2012 in Stuttgart, now become MEDTEC Germany in actual fact?

 No. It is more the case that MEDTEC Ireland, UK, France and, from 2012, MEDTEC Italy as well, are regional satellites of MEDTEC Europe. The latter is and will remain the leading European trade fair for the medical technology industry for exhibitors and visitors from the whole of Europe. But because designers and engineers traditionally only have limited travel budgets, in Stuttgart we see only upper management levels from the countries you’ve named. Middle management is mainly to be found at regional fairs. With MEDTEC Italy in Modena, we will be staging a fair in the centre of the Italian medical technology industry. In the region around Mirandola-Modena alone, there are approximately 100 companies engaged exclusively in the medtech industry. In this way we will be able to ensure that, here too, local decision-makers will have direct access to suppliers in the value added chain operating on a global scale.

What conceptual differences are there between the various country-specific MEDTEC fairs?

 As I’ve said, the fairs in the UK, France, Ireland and, from 2012 Italy as well, are satellite events addressing only a ‘local’ clientele as the visitors. But the concept is similar to that of MEDTEC Europe. All events have an exhibition and a conference dimension. However, each fair also has a particular thrust and focus reflecting the special requirements and challenges of their particular country. Perhaps MEDTEC Ireland is an exception to our general approach, because it always takes the form of a ‘table-top’ fair in a hotel in Galway or Cork. Also, it is limited in size, hosting 80 exhibitors at the most, whereas the other events are held on conventional fair sites.

With MDM Brazil in June and MEDTEC India in October, UBM Canon are also venturing into more virgin territory in the global markets. What role does UBM Canon assign to these fairs in its events portfolio and what are the specific goals to be achieved on the Brazilian and Indian medtech markets in the next five years?

With our fairs, we play a pioneering role and see ourselves as preparing the way for developments in medtech in the respective markets. Who would have thought over ten years ago that MEDTEC in Stuttgart, which started with 150 exhibitors, would be hosting some 1,000 exhibitors today? Our experience in Japan and China is similar, though the initial years could be described as rather challenging, whereas now we have established very good events which bring attractive new business for exhibitors. Although India and Brazil are still in their infancy as regards the size of the industry, growth rates of up to 15% are also being forecast for these countries for the coming years. Despite some initial scepticism, when some of our exhibitors look back on the first Indian fair it was the most successful in their entire history. And as for our fair in Sao Paulo, we see it as one of the best inaugural events that we had ever had in our portfolio up to that time.

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