Vancouver, BC – written May 29, 2024 – The HANNOVER MESSE 2024 with 4,000 exhibiting companies, 300 participating startups and over 300 economic and political delegations from all over the world attracted more than 130,000 visitors from 150 countries, confirming that #HM24 is indeed the “worlds leading trade show for industrial technology”.
More than 40 percent of visitors came from abroad. Apart from the host nation of Germany, the top visitor nations were China, the Netherlands, South Korea, the United States and Japan. One of the exciting visitors this year was the Canadian Ambassador to Germany, John Horgan.
Some background history to the trade fair in Hannover: the year was 1947. In postwar Germany’s ravaged economy, food supplies were scarce and industry was weaker than ever. Reconstruction? Impossible without international support. As far as the British occupying forces were concerned, it was necessary to find a symbol that presented the passion and the economic potential of German workers and entrepreneurs to the rest of the world.
The company known as “Deutsche Messe- und Ausstellungs-AG” was born – and with it, the “Hannover Export Fair 1947”. In 1961, the name was changed again: “Hannover-Messe” makes it immediately clear how proud the city was of the role it played in the postwar industrial upturn – a pride which remains intact to this day.
Fast forward to 2024, Dr. Gunther Kegel, President of the ZVEI association and Chairman of the HANNOVER MESSE Exhibitor Advisory Board, stated: “In the current difficult economic environment, this year’s Hannover Messe was a key morale booster. Companies from the electrical and digital industry impressively demonstrated how innovations, especially the use of artificial intelligence, opened up new options for more climate protection and greater efficiency in energy consumption and the use of resources. But also for more optimism.
We can confidently take on major social challenges such as curbing global warming if we adopt the right measures and consistently pursue the path towards electrification, digitization and automation. Hannover Messe has once again made the innovative strength of our companies visible and thus made an important contribution to strengthening Germany as an industrial location,” he concluded.
Ambassador John Horgan visited Accelerate-Accélérer who were representing the Canadian ZEV (zero-emission vehicle) industry. They were accompanied by several members showcasing Canadian innovation across various ZEV supply chain segments. Their CEO, Matthew Fortier, seized the opportunity to interview some of them.
Interviewing some Companies
🔋The Accelerate Alliance brings together industries, governments, researchers, advocates and others relevant to manufacturing ZEV and ZEV parts across Canada. The aim of the Alliance is to encourage these key players—from mining to mobility, from R&D to commercialization, and from vehicle assembly to charging infrastructure—to collaborate, strategize, and advocate for policies that accelerate the development of the ZEV supply chain in Canada. They are working with and supported by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada and NGen Canada.
The University of Windsor gave attendees, such as Ambassador John Horgan, a chance to try a remote-control car with a difference: a full-size vehicle with more than 6,500 km remote.
A team from Windsor Engineering set up a connection between the Centre for Engineering Innovation and the Hannover Messe Expo, which caters to a plethora of companies in the field of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and digital industries.
Conferees were able to sit in a simulated automotive cockpit and — in real time — operate a Ford Mustang Mach-E, mounted on a dynamometer in the Centre for Hybrid Automotive Research and Green Energy (CHARGE) lab.
As they accelerated from 0 to 60 km/h, they would be able to see a digital display of the vehicle’s acceleration and power outputs as if they were seated in the car, as well as data from the dynamometer of the torque on the front and rear axles. A video camera installed by the media production team in the Office of Public Affairs and Communications provided a livestream of the vehicle’s exterior to the cross-Atlantic operators.
As an innovation and technology leader, Siemens combines real and the digital worlds to help their customers accelerate transformation and meet the greatest productivity and sustainability challenges of our time. They help industrial companies transform the everyday for billions of people.
As we approach critical tipping points for our planet, the demand to accelerate a sustainable transformation has never been greater. Siemens empowers their customers to become sustainable Digital Enterprises by combining real and the digital worlds with Siemens Xcelerator faster, easier, and at scale. In his keynote, Magnus Edholm dove into exciting examples from different industries that showed how companies can design more sustainable products, and decarbonize their operations and supply chains efficiently and profitably.
Ambassador John Horgan stated on X (Twitter): “As a global player rooted in Germany, with an extensive network of subsidiaries in Canada, @Siemens is a solid pillar of the transatlantic innovation bridge. I was pleased to meet @SiemensCanada at @hannover_messe and learn about its contribution to the #greentransition and #industrie40.”
Other Canadian participants included:
Acentury supplies RF components and builds software automation and orchestration prroducts for the wireless communications industry. Industries we help serve include mobile network operators, network equipment vendors, cable multi-service operators, and the hyperscale tech companies. Acentury’s product portfolio includes software orchestration solutions for RF labs, software automation solutions for mobile operators, and RF network components and cryogenic cables for field and lab applications. Founded in 2011, Acentury is headquartered in Richmond, Ontario Canada.
ZeroKey Inc. is a Canadian technology company that designs and manufactures Quantum RTLS™, a patented hyper-accurate location technology that leads the industry in accuracy by a factor of over 100. By digitizing physical processes with 1.5 mm 3D accuracy, Quantum RTLS is revolutionizing industrial environments, one factory, warehouse, and facility at a time. ZeroKey’s technology is modernizing traditional industries, from manufacturing to construction job sites, by precisely digitizing workflows, material flows, and operations to drive real-time process management, complete operational visibility, process optimization, and much more. Whether it’s tracking a lost package or analyzing the efficiency of an assembly line, Quantum RTLS empowers businesses to move beyond the one-off optimization of individual processes to the continuous real-time optimization, automation, and integration of entire facilities.
Located in the heart of the city, Vancouver Community College (VCC) offers academic, cultural, and social environments that inspire relevant real-world training. Our on campus facilities – including gourmet restaurants, an auto shop, and salon and spa – allow students to hone their skills and training while providing high-quality lower-cost services to the Downtown and East Vancouver communities
High precision, reliable positioning devices to automate manufacturing, inspection, or quality processes. Zaber systems are completely modular so you can easily build cartesian positioning systems, like gantries, gimbals and more. Designed with your requirements in mind, we offer various bearing systems to provide high stiffness as well as systems designed for high duty cycle applications that maintain accuracy and long lifetime. We offer 1-2 week lead times, 99% on-time delivery, and respond to inquiries within 1 day.
The Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) is Canada’s second largest research and technology organization with 1,600 clients in 22 countries around the world. SRC has investigated lithium and rare earth element technologies for over 15 years.
SRC is constructing North America’s first fully integrated, commercial, demonstration Rare Earth Processing Facility, with hydrometallurgy, separation and metal smelting units. The Facility will be operational before the end of 2024 and will produce enough neodymium/praseodymium metals to manufacture 500,000 electric vehicles per year. SRC’s facility will require up to 3,000 tonnes per year of monazite concentrate on a minimum 80 percent basis.
SRC built a large-scale lithium pilot plant with the capacity to process spodumene, lepidolite, petalite and lithium brine concentrates to produce battery-grade lithium carbonate and hydroxide monohydrate. SRC also has developed direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology and offers DLE performance testing.
Next year, in 2025, Canada will be the partner country and the German Chamber of Commerce in Toronto hopes to attract at least 200 Canadian enterprises to join the 7 planned Canadian Pavilions.
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As official representative for Deutsche Messe AG in Canada, the Canadian German Chamber is your point of contact to facilitate your participation at the trade shows in Germany (Hannover Fairs).
*Pictures of Ambassador Horgan were used with permission from the Press Relations and Social Media Coordinator in the Embassy of Canada.
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