Platform for the food and beverage industry
The ideal balancing act between a conference and a trade show. That is perhaps the best way to describe ABISS. As a networking summit, visitors are treated to top shelf content. No commercial talk, but practical tools that can lead to new insights. New developments in digitization? Best practices in digital roadmaps of other companies? It all passes in review and they can immediately link the lessons learned to the right partner(s) on the show floor. A formula that works because ABISS is heading for a record edition on October 6 in Kortrijk Xpo.
With the corona issues finally a bit more on the back burner, ABISS is rejoining the 2019 growth curve. Organizer Industrialfairs expects to strand around the 90 exhibitor mark and is moving the fair to Hall 3 at Kortrijk Xpo. Logical, you will think, because digitalization is in the spotlight. Sure, but at every fair today companies show the software solutions they have in store for their customers. What really sets the event apart from classic trade shows like Indumation is the focus on content. "That's where the bulk of our efforts go," opens Sven Mollie, exhibition & content manager for ABISS. "You have the experts from knowledge institutions talking about the latest developments, but especially companies coming to share their experiences. Who talk about the challenges they have already encountered and the next steps they want to take in their digital transition. That input is golden for any visitor." The full program was not yet known when the magazine went to press, but can be found on the fair's website.
Who then can help visitors with all this inspiration from the Expert Classes to set up a digitization project themselves? They don't have to look far for that either at ABISS. "The exhibitors on the show floor help them translate everything they have heard in the Expert Classes to their own project and their own digital issues. That's really the strength of ABISS: the combination of theory and practice," stressed Karl D'Haveloose, managing director Industrialfairs. The organization also watches over content in that area. "Just to profile ourselves alongside other automation fairs. Every manufacturer in this world today has their own apps, cloud solutions or platforms. They don't need to come to ABISS for that. But they do for applications that are also open to other hardware. Where the focus is really on digitizing processes. That is the playground of ABISS." For a clear overview, the show floor and Expert Classes are divided into three themes, as in past editions: Industry of Things, Intelligence of Things and Security of Things.
A second focus of the fair is, of course, networking. "This is why we deliberately keep the area for exhibitors limited. The show and demo content is lower here, the content is central. Visitors are given every opportunity to find inspiration for the digital challenges they face. But we see that our exhibitors are also networking. Several projects have already been realized with solutions developed by different partners together who found each other here on our exhibition floor. Surely we are proud of that. That is why we want to be able to continue offering everything in one compact space: the networking, the catering, the conference and the fair. That combination makes for a rock-solid interaction," D'Haveloose and Mollie conclude.
Practical info
Where. Kortrijk Xpo
When. Thursday, Oct. 6
Opening hours? From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
More info? www.abissummit.be
