BINDER at expo: HET Instrument different this year
The largest technology event in the Netherlands, the four-day trade show and conference HET Instrument took place from 28 September to 1 October and of course, BINDER was a part of it. This year the event was held in Amsterdam RAI instead of Jaarbeurs Utrecht. Three technology industries were exhibiting there: industrial electronics, industrial automation and laboratory technology. Virtually all relevant companies that have come through the recession in good shape were participating.
With around 450 stand holders spread across six trade show halls and floor space of thirty thousand square metres gross, HET Instrument is unique for the Netherlands. The stronger the Netherlands’ technology position has become in the world, the more the international position of HET Instrument has grown in relative terms for BINDER. With expected numbers of 18,000 visitors from the knowledge economy, the event is belying the mild doommongering that occasionally rears its head in the economic press. As the industry association organizing the event, the FHI is definitely not as gloomy as the clamour surrounding the closure of Organon Research. ‘If something like this happens, it confirms the trend towards scaling things down that we are seeing in the knowledge economy’, says Kees Groeneveld, Director of FHI, the federation of technology industries behind HET Instrument. ‘Strength in technology and innovation are hard to combine with an R&D department far removed from your own head office. This also goes for MSD, the new owner of the former Organon. At the same time we’re actually happy that the people from the lab are being made available. We’ll have such an extreme shortage of them in the near future that every knowledge worker becoming available is welcome.’ The trend towards increased content has been running for a number of years in and around HET Instrument. The intrinsic conference programme is unremitting in its growth, both in terms of numbers of seminar sessions and in terms of conference attendance numbers. In 2008, the previous edition, the size of the conference was unique in its class in the Netherlands, with 1,800 attendees. At that time, this was ten percent of all HET Instrument attendees. This year the number of conference sections has grown to 31 and it is anticipated that the organization will have a new record number of attendees.
Also in keeping with this trend towards increased content are the other innovations in the HET Instrument concept. The trade show floor will be opening and closing later. Nobody will have to waste their time in traffic jams, not even those people that wish to attend an early conference section. All visitors will be able to use public transport for free. Even those joining the conference programme in the afternoon will have ample opportunity to go onto the trade show floor and experience everything. Apart from all manner of themed pavilions, for the first time this edition of the trade show will also feature an evening programme with free catering and a fully live concert with different acts each evening: Loïs Lane, Slagerij van Kampen and Big Black & Beautiful. In the FHI’s four sectors, a total of eight hundred and fifty technology companies are united, of which roughly four hundred and fifty participate in HET Instrument. The overall turnover of the companies affiliated with the FHI totals in excess of six and a half billion Euros. Some eighteen thousand professional visitors are expected at HET Instrument 2010, around eighty percent of which possess higher vocational or university-level education. This renders HET Instrument the largest technology event in the Benelux region.
