New offshore tradeshow "Windforce" a success
Roughly 5 months before the event gets started, 65 exhibitors have already booked floorspace, and another 20 have reserved booths. WAB, which represents Germany's offshore wind sector and is organizing the event, is thus close to its goal of 100 exhibitors already.
Windforce will be taking place from June 26-29, 2012, at the conference center in Bremen, Germany. Such firms as Areva, Eurocopter, Hochtief Solutions, the offshore competence center in Cuxhaven, Palfinger, PNE Wind, Windguard and RWE have already booked. Along with the exhibition, the ninth WAB offshore conference will also be taking place in Bremen.
"Since it was launched, the conference has become a meeting place for the offshore industry," explains WAB head Ronny Meyer. He says the success of the conference encouraged his organization to launch a tradeshow.
To organize the four-day tradeshow, which will take place in even years in Bremen, Offshore Wind Messe- und Veranstaltungs GmbH was founded. Its executive director Jens Eckhoff told Renewables International that the city-state of Bremen may be partly funding the event; negotiations are in the final round, but he did not wish to provide any specifics.
The conference and trade show focus on system manufacturers, logistics firms, shipbuilders, and maritime service providers. The conferences will continue to be conducted each year by WAB (Windenergieagentur Bremerhaven/Bremen), though the venue will toggle between Bremen and Bremerhaven. In odd years, the conference in Bremerhaven will also include a ship exhibition at the local docks.
Steffen Schleicher, offshore project director at WAB, says the tradeshow is not intended to compete with EWEA's European offshore tradeshow, but rather to complement it: "Germany is the second-largest market for offshore wind in Europe, and the industry is very interested. We see Windforce as an addition and therefore want to have the event take place in even years, whereas EWEA's conference only takes place in odd years – the next one being in 2013 and Frankfurt." (Regine Krüger / Craig Morris)
