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GeoTHERM trade show in Germany last week with record attendance

GeoTHERM trade show in Germany last week with record attendance GeoTHERM 2012, Offenburg, Germany (source: Messe Offenburg)
Alexander Richter 6 Mar 2012

German geothermal trade show GeoTHERM last week announces record numbers of visitors and exhibitors. With about 3,500 visitors and 174 exhibitors the show was a great success.

The geothermal trade show GeoTHERM was held successfully last week in Offenburg, Germany. It has set up new visitor and exhibitor records positioning itself as the largest geothermal trade fair in Europe.

The event has taken place for the 6th time and also provided a conference element that saw a great interest. There was also a great gala dinner event attached to the show.

At the day in front of GeoTHERM several cooperation partners used the congress center on the fair ground for their workshops, courses and general meetings.

“Geothermal energy is part of the future”, declared Prof. Dr. Roland Horne, President of the International Geothermal Association, at his opening speech. During the opening session the congress hall has been over-crowded caused by a high interest of participants in the speeches of the leading geothermal associations, such as the President of the German Geothermal Association Waldemar Müller-Ruhe, the Chairman of the Economic Geothermal Association Dr. Erwin Knapek, the Managing Director of the German Heat Pump Association Karl-Heinz Stawiarski, the President of the European Federation of Geologists Dr. Ruth Allington, the President of the European Geothermal Energy Council Dr. Burkhard Sanner.

“At the entire area of the Exhibition Center Offenburg representatives of the whole geothermal branch have been present, explained Werner Bock, Managing Director of the Exhibition Center Offenburg. With 20 percent more visitors 3477 participants from 32 nations (coming from the US, Australia, Africa and Europe, compared to 2898 visitors in the previous year) benefited from the opportunity to make valuable contacts at Europe’s largest trade fair. 174 exhibitors from twelve countries (An increase of more than 30 percent compared to the previous year with 133 exhibitors from 9 countries) have presented their products and services. The exhibitor satisfaction is confirmed by the high rebooking rate for GeoTHERM 2013 with more than 40 percent.

“We had two successful days at GeoTHERM. The amount and quality of exhibitors as well as the high number of visitors has convinced myself”, summarized Dr. Susanne Schmitt, Chairman of the GeoEnergy Celle Association. “Even the combination of congress and trade fair with high-quality congress speeches reflects perfectly the demands of the geothermal industry, so that I would appreciate our participation at next GeoTHERM in 2013.”

Just as Dr. Horst Kreuter, Managing Director of GeoThermal Engineering GmbH, underlines the successful internationalization of the trade fair. „As enterprise, which is working at international level, we meet the right international decision makers in Offenburg.”

“We are pleased about the terrific support of our cooperation partners and the high commitment of exhibitors and visitors”, pointed out Sandra Kircher, Project Director. At this year’s GeoTHERM new cooperations for the future of GeoTHERM have been built. For example the Exhibition Center Offenburg is proud of welcoming the European Federation of Geologists as new partner of GeoTHERM.

The next GeoTHERM will be taking place February 28-March 1, 2013 at the Exhibition Center Offenburg (Germany).

Further information is available online in English, French and German www.geotherm-offenburg.de.