Pictures from an exhibition: Fakuma 2014 slideshow

Cute and laid-back are not adjectives you typically associate with a trade show, unless that show is Fakuma, the international plastics processing event that was held in Friedrichshafen, Germany, from Oct. 14 to 18. You hear that a lot on the show floor, and it's not said with a smirk—exhibitors and visitors alike are appreciative of the bucolic surroundings and the event's human scale—another comment I heard—as much as the opportunity to conduct business at a more genteel pace than is possible at K or NPE.

By all accounts, it's a winning formula. As Karen Laird reports, Fakuma 2014 broke all records, with more than 45,000 visitors from 117 countries, according to show organizers. Exhibition space typically is fully booked many months in advance, and this year exhibitors spilled into the east and west foyers.

Many exhibitors were in a buoyant mood for reasons other than the show: 2014 financial results were very good for many of them, and 2015 looks like it will be more of the same, all of which bodes well for the plastics industry's next rendez-vous, NPE2015 in March in Orlando, FL. Indeed, show organizers have just announced that the event has reached the million-square-foot threshold, with five more months left to sell space.

Next slide: It's good to be a machine builder