International Fair for the Glass industry, Machinery/Equipment, Skilled trade, Architecture The glass industry is one of the most innovative industries in the world. Great efforts are being made in research and development to launch innovations in materials, manufacturing processes and applications.

This is why glasstec, as the world´s leading trade fair and indicator of business developments in the glass industry, is expanding its remit to include the following product areas: electronic display technology and laser technology.

After difficult economic times a spirit of optimism is now once again prevailing in the glass sector. This was made clear by the 1,274 exhibitors to glasstec, the world’s most important glass trade fair, and solarpeq, the new trade fair for solar production technology. A total of roughly 45,000 trade visitors attended the closely dovetailed events. Of these over one third also stated interest in the range at solarpeq.

Exhibiting firms reported holding many good discussions with high-ranking visitors and anticipate lucrative post-fair business. These included many international contacts. This is also reflected in the findings of the glasstec and solarpeq visitor questionnaires: well over half the visitors travelling to D黶seldorf came from abroad. A significant rise was posted amongst trade visitors from North and, in particular, South America. Almost one in two visitors came with the intention of placing specific orders or had already done so.

Martin Gutmann, President of glasstec 2010 and Federal Guild Master, confirms a very good mood amongst exhibitors: “We ourselves noticed this at our stand in the skilled trades centre as did companies in the glass industry and engineering sector: the trade fair went really well. This bodes very well for the coming months. We seem to have definitely come out of the trough.” Commenting on this Hans Werner Reinhard, Deputy Managing Director at Messe D黶seldorf, said: “glasstec has confirmed its pioneering role as the most important international meeting point for the glass sector – and now business is on the upturn once again. This is an excellent signal for our exhibitors.”