Messe Frankfurt Group organizes 148 exhibitions a year around the world and in India alone their portfolio consists of over 20 prestigious trade fair brands and over 30 conferences, making them the country’s leading and most professional trade fair and conference organizer. The organizer of India’s biggest lighting shows and events, and industry also projected to cross Rs. 10,000 crores by 2020-2021. In the recently held LED Expo 2019 New Delhi, our Managing Editor Hari Shanker met Michael Dehn, General Manager Sales and Marketing at Messe Frankfurt India, and he shared the success behind LED Expo 2019, future LED Expo merging with Light India, and about their mission in India.
Held at India Expo Mart, Greater Noida from the 14th to 16th of November, 2019 ‘LED Expo New Delhi, 2019’ was India’s only expo that exclusively focused on the complete value chain of the LED industry. The expo resulted in the recognition of the industry potential and the futuristic technology that will take the lighting industry by storm. The expo also created a platform for both the exhibitors and the visitors to source and explore the latest trends in lighting products and technologies from around the globe.
With future-oriented solutions, the New Delhi LED expo entered its 21st edition and the LED expo as a forum became an invigorating force in India to phase out non-conventional lightings such as CFL and CCFL and leap into the next-generation technology for intelligent LED lighting. With a constant boost in the number of exhibitors and visitors each year, LED Expo has become one of the most important events in the lighting arena to update and exchange knowledge and to get engaged with technologies and innovations among various stakeholders.
LED Expo 2019 New Delhi witnessed more than 340 exhibitors from more than 10 participating countries across the globe presenting their trend-setting products and technologies in the LED lighting industry, and more than 12,000 visitors.
Talking to us Mr. Michael Dehn said that the exhibition was an extremely successful one and this year’s exhibition witnessed an overall growth of 18% compared to the last year and a 25% growth in international participation. He also added that since the first LED expo in 2014, it has witnessed a huge growth of 74%. Michael stated that they are seeing a lot of dynamics in this particular industry with the LED components as well as the finished products and that the exhibitors have been extremely loyal to their exhibition in both Delhi and Mumbai editions.
Michael also stated that the exhibitors need this platform for their business and said ‘it’s quite good for them to inject new business into their company every six months…and that’s the job of this show. We’re not here to show pretty stands and then not do business, but we’re here to generate business for the exhibitors so that they can upgrade themselves in the next few months’.
During the expo, LED Expo announced a merger with Light India. Light India is organized once every 2 years and their last exhibition was in 2018, and come 2020 the lighting industry is in for a treat with this mammoth of a merger, as Michael also promised that the new exhibition will be significantly bigger and distinguished.
Michael further explained that a few years ago lighting was not a synonym with LED and the future of lighting industry was ambiguous since the technology that would rule the lighting industry was unknown; but now, it is very clear that the future of lighting industry is LED, which is why they planned the merger with Light India. Further, in our discussion, he said that “there is no big overlap between Light India and LED Expo, so basically when we put these two together it will be almost double the size and that in turn will make these shows a lot more attractive for the international market…and this will truly be the 360-degree exhibition of the Indian market as well as the international market”.
Despite the merger, there will be no changes in the frequency or the schedule of the exhibitions with regard to LED Expo happening twice a year and Light India once in every 2 years. Both organizers will continue to organize their exhibitions as usual, except for the fourth quarter of every 2nd year the exhibition will be organized as ‘Light and LED Expo India’.
The LED Expos so far had the participation of major contingents from the Asian countries such as China, India, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, etc. and smaller contingents from the European countries.
The reason for this trend is, the main production of LEDs is concentrated in China and India and an exhibition is the reflection of that industry and its main production area. However, Michael promised that we will soon witness a growth in the contingents from the European countries because the smart LED and design LED fields are ruled by them and the diversity of the demands of the Indian market. The strategy and the process for growth in the contingents from European countries are already being developed by Messe Frankfurt and the merger between LED Expo and Light India will accelerate this development.
Considering the fact that the majority of the rural areas and some urban areas of India are still unlit and living in the dark, the demand for lighting and the lighting industry in the Indian market is incomprehensively huge. Hence, in offering solutions to this kind of demand in India, Michael stated that rural India can easily catch up with the solar products combined with LEDs as they do not need much infrastructure and can be immediately installed. In the discussion about the scope for the lighting industry in the global market, Michael explained that the lighting products are no longer just lighting products; they are connected to the internet of things and provide a lot more services than just lighting, and this trend is seen across the globe and certainly in India. The challenge in implementing those lies in the net worth, as these lighting products have complex technology resulting in high-end and sophisticated home automation systems.
Sharing his thoughts to Hari, Michael said that the technology will get simpler in the future providing us with plug-and-play products that can be easily installed
Messe Frankfurt organizes 20 exhibitions in India every year, and one of the exhibitions similar to the LED expo is the Media Expo. The only overlap in these two exhibitions is digital signage; however, it is given more attention in the Media Expo because that is where the relevant target groups are. Messe Frankfurt also organizes exhibitions in the textile industry, automotive engineering and industry, stationery industry, escalator and elevator industry, sanitary ware industry, etc. In conclusion, Michael said that ‘as exhibition professionals, we try to get a grasp of every possible industry and understand how they work, which is a challenge but also a lot of fun’.
LED Expo and Light India are two very relevant platforms Messe Frankfurt created to cater to the ever-growing need for lighting and lighting technologies. Bringing light into the world, Messe Frankfurt is aiding it for ages at a colossal scale in a seemingly effortless manner. Lighting is a common need in every single industry with varying demands and LED Expo is here to not just to meet all your needs but to exceed them quite easily.
For more details visit www.messefrankfurt.com