News › LASER World of PHOTONICS impres­ses with strong response in chal­len­ging times

AT LASER WORLD OF PHOTONICS 2022, THE INTERNATIONAL PHOTONICS INDUSTRY MET AGAIN LIVE IN MUNICH FROM APRIL 26 TO 29.

The world’s lea­ding trade show accom­pa­nied an indus­try that is on the ups­wing world­wide. For the first time, the World of QUANTUM also pro­vi­ded a stage for the inter­na­tio­nal quan­tum com­mu­nity. In addi­tion, it became clear which cen­tral role pho­to­nics plays, for exam­ple, in medi­cal tech­no­logy, elec­tro­mo­bi­lity and indus­trial manufacturing.

• Over 900 exhi­bi­tors from more than 30 countries
• More than 15,000 visitors
• Suc­cessful pre­miere of the World of QUANTUM

LASER World of PHOTONICS took place wit­hout the par­al­lel con­gress due to the corona-rela­ted post­po­ne­ment; next year, the indus­try will come tog­e­ther again in Munich in the usual format.

Dr. Rein­hard Pfeif­fer, Deputy Chair­man of the Board of Manage­ment of Messe Mün­chen, sum­med up: »The response cle­arly excee­ded our expec­ta­ti­ons: More than 15,000 visi­tors tra­ve­led to Munich. That’s a good 80 per­cent of the level of trade show atten­dees at the pre­vious event in 2019, an out­stan­ding result for a trade show in Corona times. Thirty-nine per­cent of visi­tors came from abroad, with the USA and Israel among those far ahead. We are also very plea­sed with the suc­cessful pre­miere of the World of QUANTUM, plat­form for a future tech­no­logy that is signi­fi­cantly based on pho­to­nics and pre­dic­ted to have at least as signi­fi­cant a future.«

»LASER is alive again!« says Dr. Wil­helm Kaen­ders, Chair­man of the Exhi­bi­tor Advi­sory Board and CEO of TOPTICA Pho­to­nics AG. »After three years, the entire inno­va­tive power of the indus­try is once again on dis­play, which has so far found its way very well through the various cri­ses. With the Quan­tum theme, an old gate­way for the future of pho­to­nics is being pushed open anew.«

Trade show reflects inter­na­tio­nal growth market

The show was an important mile­stone for an indus­try on the ups­wing. More than 900 exhi­bi­tors from more than 30 count­ries (2019: 1,325 exhi­bi­tors from more than 40 count­ries) made pre­sen­ta­ti­ons, inclu­ding 15 natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal joint stands. The top ten exhi­bi­tor count­ries after Ger­many were USA, France, Great Bri­tain and Nor­t­hern Ire­land, Switz­er­land, China, Lithua­nia, Net­her­lands, Canada, Fin­land and Japan. The top ten visi­ting count­ries from abroad included Switz­er­land, Italy, Great Bri­tain and Nor­t­hern Ire­land, Israel, France, USA, Czech Repu­blic, Aus­tria, Net­her­lands and Spain.

»The growth poten­tial of pho­to­nics is enorm­ous,« explains Jörg Mayer, mana­ging direc­tor of the indus­try asso­cia­tion SPECTARIS. »In 2020, experts have fore­cast average annual growth of more than six per­cent for the Ger­man pho­to­nics indus­try alone until 2025, and total sales of almost 60 bil­lion euros by then. I am con­fi­dent that this tar­get will be achie­ved, if not excee­ded, despite the cur­rent glo­bal challenges.«

Pre­miere: World of QUANTUM

The World of QUANTUM was held for the first time in its own hall and imme­dia­tely met with a very posi­tive response: More than 60 per­cent of all trade show visi­tors came to this new area, and more than 90 per­cent of them were enthu­si­a­stic about the World of QUANTUM offe­rings in a trade show sur­vey. It is curr­ently the world’s lar­gest plat­form for net­wor­king sci­ence, indus­try and users from the field of quan­tum tech­no­logy, pro­vi­ding infor­ma­tion on cur­rent rese­arch results and pre­sen­ting initial appli­ca­tion examp­les of this future tech­no­logy. IBM Quan­tum let visi­tors look inside its quan­tum com­pu­ter via a model. And at the Qis­kit Hacka­thon, rea­li­zed in coope­ra­tion with part­ners IBM Quan­tum and the Ger­man Fede­ral Minis­try of Edu­ca­tion and Rese­arch, teams of young rese­ar­chers were able to try their hand at pro­gramming quan­tum com­pu­ters. »The World of QUANTUM was an enorm­ous suc­cess,« said a deligh­ted Dr. Lech­ner, Exe­cu­tive Direc­tor at Messe Mün­chen. »Tog­e­ther with our part­ners, we’ve had a great start, and tog­e­ther we will con­ti­nue on this path.« Dr. Wal­ter Riess, Mana­ger Quan­tum Tech­no­logy at IBM Rese­arch Europe, added: »The World of QUANTUM more than excee­ded my expec­ta­ti­ons. I am alre­ady loo­king for­ward to next year.«

Exhi­bi­tors plea­sed with trade show pre­sence again

»After a forced break of more than three years, the importance of the trade fair for estab­li­shing and main­tai­ning cont­acts with our cus­to­mers has once again increased signi­fi­cantly. The posi­tive response to our booth con­firms this very cle­arly,« explains Mar­kus Span­ner, CEO Phy­sik Instru­mente. Dr. Tho­mas Fehn, Mana­ging Direc­tor Sales and Ser­vice TRUMPF Laser Tech­no­logy, says: »LASER World of PHOTONICS is one of the cen­tral plat­forms for pre­sen­ting our latest ideas and exchan­ging tech­ni­cal infor­ma­tion with our inter­na­tio­nal cus­to­mers.« Jür­gen Nie­der­ho­fer, Gene­ral Mana­ger MKS Instru­ments says: »Our expec­ta­ti­ons regar­ding the num­ber of visi­tors and cus­to­mer inqui­ries have been excee­ded so far. The qua­lity of leads is very good and inte­res­t­ing dis­cus­sions have taken place.« Ben­ja­min Rudolph, Co-Foun­der, was a first-time exhi­bi­tor with his start-up SI Stutt­gart Instru­ments: »The trade fair is an excel­lent place to meet for net­wor­king and to forge new part­ner­ships. In addi­tion, we take exci­ting leads back to Stutt­gart with us. We are par­ti­cu­larly plea­sed to have been hono­red with 1st place in the Inno­va­tion Award.«

Award-win­ning inno­va­tions in the industry

The Inno­va­tion Award was pre­sen­ted for the second time in con­junc­tion with Europa Sci­ence. A jury con­sis­ting of top experts from indus­try and sci­ence sel­ec­ted the most inno­va­tive pro­ducts in a total of six cate­go­ries, and SI Stutt­gart Instru­ments was also hono­red as the over­all win­ner. The win­ners in the indi­vi­dual cate­go­ries are Hama­matsu Pho­to­nics Ger­many, Glas­so­mer, SI Stutt­gart Instru­ments, QiOVA, ID Quan­tique and Xarion Laser Acoustics.

Pro­ject mana­ger Anke Odouli sum­ma­ri­zes: »The indus­try has once again impres­si­vely demons­tra­ted the key role that pho­to­nics plays for inno­va­tions in many other areas. And our exten­sive sup­port­ing pro­gram focu­sed on the exch­ange with experts and the trans­fer of knowledge.«

The next LASER World of PHOTONICS will be held at the Messe Mün­chen exhi­bi­tion cen­ter from June 27 to 30, 2023, and the next World of Pho­to­nics Con­gress from June 25 to 30, 2023.

Pic­tures and videos of LASER World of PHOTONICS can be found here.