Leading German trade fair and exhibition organiser, Epoc Messe Frankfurt, is upbeat about the industry’s prospects thanks to a strong resurgence in the regional economy, which led to a successful 2010 season.

The majority of the trade shows and exhibitions in 2010 reported extremely encouraging results with increases in net space, exhibitors and visitors as well as robust interest in general trade around the region, said a senior Epoc Messe official.

“We are happy to be able to report on a successful season,” said Ahmed Pauwels, chief executive officer of Epoc Messe Frankfurt.

Top industry trade platforms such as Intersec trade fair and conference – the event for security and policing industry, Automechanika Middle East, the preferred event for the automotive aftermarket, Hardware+Tools and Beautyworld Middle East proved to be big draws attracting the movers and shakers, from supplies and distributors to key decision makers in their re-spective fields, he noted.

“The economies of the region seem to have shaken off the worst effects of the downturn and this is reflected in the surge of interest in trade shows and the development of a better business environment in general.”

“Apart from these factors, we continue to work at fine-tuning our events to suit the needs of a rapidly evolving market. The efforts of our marketing and research teams who work hard at implementing the feedback of our clients, seems to have paid off in the increasing response to our events,” Pauwels added.

Among the first of the trade events to report an increase this season was the 11 per cent increase in visitor numbers as experienced by Intersec trade fair and conference held at the start of the year.

The 2011 edition which is just around the corner is to be the biggest the show has held to date and already a 25 per cent increase in overall size for the exhibition is anticipated.

Demand continued apace last year in the beauty and wellness industry with the premier trade event Beautyworld Middle East, having had a highly successful run attracting 738 exhibitors from 44 countries - a growth of 13 per cent over last year.

The success of Automechanika, which reported a 33 per cent rise in the number of global visitors over previous edition, speaks volumes about the continuing fascination with the automobile in this region, said the official.

This year’s edition reached the 1,000 exhibitor milestone and there was a number of product launches at the exhibition. In addition, strong interest continued in the tuning and modification of automobiles.

“As the overall business sentiment looks rosier, we are looking forward to further developing our events and to adding necessary elements to our portfolio as the situation demands,” Pauwels stated.

Epoc is optimistic about the 2011 season especially with the continuing improvement in the economic outlook.

Playworld ME and Paperworld ME are set to make their debut in March and 2011 is also the year for the next edition of logistics and supply chain industry event, Materials Handling ME, he added.-TradeArabia News Service