Photo: Woodworking
Some 96,000 trade visitors attended LIGNA 2015 to see the latest innovations the industry has to offer.The first-ever LIGNA Conference will make its debut at the Hannover Exhibition Center’s Robotation Academy May 3-4, 2016 - one year prior to the next LIGNA fair.
The conference theme will be “Integrated production in woodworking – the way towards Industry 4.0,” and the event is organized by Deutsche Messe and the German Woodworking Machinery Manufacturers’ Association.
The conference is specifically targeted at decision makers from the woodworking trades and the furniture, building products, interior finishing and timber construction sectors.
Integrated production, which was the keynote theme of this year’s LIGNA trade fair, has proven to be a major talking point among exhibitors, visitors and the media.
“LIGNA reflects and continually adapts to the defining trends in the global market,” says Christian Pfeiffer, director in charge of LIGNA at Deutsche Messe.
“Our focus on meeting the needs of our target groups and highlighting the key challenges facing the industry has made LIGNA the world’s leading tradeshow for plant, machines and tools for the woodworking and wood processing industries.
“The Industry 4.0 theme we chose for this year’s show resonated strongly among all the stakeholders and this encouraged us to launch this new conference for the non-LIGNA years.”
The two-day conference will explore the intelligent integration of production and logistics processes and the practical benefits of Industry 4.0 technologies for users of woodworking machines. It will also feature real-life case studies that illustrate the wider benefits to the timber and furniture industries of integrated production systems - the ability to manufacture customized products at competitive prices, for instance.
Digitalization not only impacts companies’ production processes, it can also profoundly change their long-term strategies. That’s why next year’s conference will also take an in-depth look at future business models. In addition, at a range of exhibits at the conference venue, attendees will be able to discuss their individual situation with integrated manufacturing experts. Detailed information on speakers, topics and how to register will be available at the start of next year.
