Hannover Group Exhibit Hydrogen + Fuel Cells - Group hug!

Interviews and discussions were organized throughout the five days of the exhibit at a central stage. Most interviews were a tad too gentle. Company representatives were given ample opportunity to present their organizations’ wonderful achievements, while they were not really challenged to discuss industry developments from a more critical stance. However, some of the interviews and presentations did give a welcome introduction to some of the more interesting initiatives that exhibitors were engaged in.

Afterwards, visitors were welcome to drop by at the various booths for more in-depth discussions.

Impressive
The Hamburg hydrogen initiatives were particularly impressive. First of all because of the sheer quantity of hydrogen-related projects, but also because of the very convincing joint presentation of projects under way in the greater Hamburg region.

We’ll pay some more attention to the city’s initiatives – amongst which the upcoming official deployment of the world’s first fuel cell passenger boat – soon here at MindsinMotion.net.

Welcome approach
A nice side to the event was the group approach: organizations could jointly present themselves to the Messe visitors at combined group booths. A great chance for small organizations that could normally not afford to present themselves at the exhibition, to be there after all. The participants from the German state of Hessen, united in one group booth, were called to the stage, where they emphasized the networking advantages of a joint presentation.

To the visitors this was a welcome approach as well: they were presented with projects carried out by various partners instead of with fragmented achievements of individual organizations.

Wanted: co-ordinators
Not all participants had teamed up, though. A Canadian participant said that they “used to have a group booth”. Some of the Dutch exhibitors indicated that they would be interested in a group booth, but a representative of one of the bigger companies emphasized the importance of an individual booth instead: “We do a lot of acquisition at this event.”

Seems that both the Canadians and the Dutch need one organization to initiate and co-ordinate a joint presentation at the Messe’s next episode. Volunteers, anyone?