K, front and center

Very few trade shows have global significance. This one does. Expect at least a dozen tiny firms, some of which you may never have heard of, to grab your attention with leading-edge developments, to say nothing of the innovations revealed by the better-known suppliers.

This month from the 24th to the 31st, the K Show will draw more than 3000 exhibitors to Düsseldorf, Germany. It is an enormous gathering of plastics knowledge, and has rightfully established the event in this industry as the leading launch pad for new technology. The show will occupy all the halls (1 to 17) of the Düsseldorf Trade Fair Center. For number crunchers, that adds up to about 168,000m² (more than 1.8 million ft²). Fully 13,000m² are occupied by processors.

With so much space to cover, you need not only good shoes, but also a plan of attack to help you maximize your time. Veteran K attendees recommend you plan about half of your time in definite meetings, but also budget as much time as possible for ambling, even (especially) to halls you’d not normally visit, to discover those tiny, brilliant, nuggets of innovation at the companies with which you are not as familiar. Needless to say, a peek at the processors’ stands, distributed through halls 5-8, should be compulsory.

To help you plan your visit, we offer assistance in the form of our K Advisor e-newsletters (sign up at www.modplas.com); our Countdown to K articles; and prominently in the pre-K technology reports in this issue and in last month’s magazine. Also, use the show organizer’s website, www.k-online.de, to determine which of those 3000+ companies you want to see, and to know in advance where they are.

During the show, we are, once again, the exclusive publisher of the K Show Daily, the only English-language daily newspaper at the K. It’s a privilege we enjoy (when we don’t forget our comfy shoes) as our editors comb those 168,000m² in search of new technology. Newspapers will be available at the show entrances each day. For those of you who cannot attend, fear not: the K Show Daily stories will be posted at both www.kshowadvisor.com and the K Corner at www.modplas.com/kcorner. The stories will also be emailed during the show to the K Advisor subscribers.

After the show, our reviews in the magazine’s subsequent issues, as well as in our K Showcase, will help you get to the bottom of the news generated by those 3000+ exhibitors.

If you have the good fortune to attend the K Show this month, we would welcome the opportunity to meet and hear your thoughts. We’re hard to miss, occupying Stand 04 at the North Entrance of the fairgrounds. Have a good trip and the best of luck at the K.

Matt Defosse, Editor-in-Chief

[email protected]