SHOW NEWS: Fastener Fair Stuttgart Exhibitors Offer European Flavor

John Wolz

As soon as North Americans enter a European trade show hall they see a difference from U.S. trade shows. Instead of curtained-off 10×10 booths, Fastener Fair Stuttgart featured white hardwall booths varying from tabletop size (about half of the standard booth in the U.S.) to large company booths that look more like a cafe than a traditional booth.
Once in the aisles, North Americans would recognize several of the 449 company names exhibiting at the September 19-20, 2007, Fastener Fair Stuttgart: Alloy & Stainless Fasteners, Avdel / Acument Global Technol-ogies, Brighton-Best, Can-Eng Furnaces, Crescent Manufacturing, Earnest Ma-chine, FastenerNews.com, Fastener Technology Inter-national, GRK Fasteners, General Inspection, Inno-vative Components, Mectron, National Machinery, Hariton Machinery, Spirol Industries and Retina/Johnson Machin-ery.

North Americans could easily converse with most exhibitors, as English is the most common language on the show floor. But there are plenty of languages to be heard, starting with the host country”s German and including Italian, French, Spanish, Polish, Russian and Asian languages. Indeed, “Welcome” was written in 14 languages on the walls of the Schafer & Peters GmbH booth.
Carolina Roa, in charge of international sales for Houston-based Alloy & Stainless found that between her English and Spanish, she could understand much from other languages, especially Italian. Roa and Gar Edmunds wore the red “Ask Me” vests North Americans would recognize.

In addition to the hardwalls being different from North America, most exhibitors showed off their fasteners in glass display cases rather than on top of a table. Several larger exhibitors had raised floors with fastener displays encased in the floors.
The show in Germany was especially important to UK companies wanting to expand in Europe. As Fastener & Fixing Europe magazine editor Phil Matten noted in the FastenerNews.com conference on exporting to Europe, selling on the continent is more than crossing the 22-mile channel between England and France. Europe is a different culture and has multiple languages and the Euro currency.
Among those exhibiting at Fastener Fair Stuffgart was Cleveland-based Earnest Ma-chine, which opened in the UK in the 1990s and is expanding into the European market.
Other North American companies operate in a variety of ways in Europe. National Machinery has an office in Nurnberg, Germany. Spirol Industries operates out of a UK facility, but has a sales office in France and a German sales engineer. “We couldn”t cover Europe without local representation,” Alistain Kirkwood explained.
Just as in North America, exhibitors found a variety of ways to demonstrate their capabilities. Uni-Screw”s small booth floor was divided between an area of decking, a metal floor section and plywood to demonstrate their different fasteners and construction products. The walls included a framed corner, banister, gutters and cabinets.
Fastbolt had just announced a joint venture for quality assurance, the Fastener Quality Center in China (see FIN, September 5, 2007), and prominently featured it with corner signage.
Lederer”s prominent fish tank right on the aisle drew visitor attention to the fish swimming around the company”s submerged fasteners.
Schurmann & Hilleke drew eyes with a chess set made from fasteners.

European shows are more “come in, sit down and talk” atmosphere than the “hard sell” North American display table at the front tradition.
Many exhibitors went beyond the candy and cookies seen often at North American trade shows with cheese blocks with national origin flag toothpicks or other local specialties.
Multiple exhibitors had tables and chairs to sit and meet with potential customers. Several larger booths appeared to be almost cafes. As salespeople sat with customers, servers provided coffee, tea, beer, sandwiches, salads and desserts.
Show management provided private meeting rooms on the show floors for exhibitors to meet with customers.
Traffic Flow
Attendees probably didn”t catch the show organizers” plan to disperse traffic to all areas of the trade show. At the last Fastener Fair in 2005, there was only one hall. This year Fastener Fair grew to three halls and organizers wanted to encourage steady traffic throughout. So advance registrants were funnelled into the first hall, those registering onsite entered the second hall and the New Product Showcase was located at the back of the third hall to draw visitors to view and vote on their favorite new fastener.
The next Fastener Fair will be UK-oriented and held June 11-12, 2008, in Coventry, England. The next Fastener Fair Stuttgart will be in September 2009 at the new Stuttgart Messe located at the airport.
For information contact show organizer Jerry Ramsdale: Fastener Fair Coventry, 18 Alban Park, Hatfield Rd., St Albans, Hertfordshire AL4 0JJ UK. Tel: (44) 1727 739 150 Email: jerry@fastfair.net Web: fastenerfair.com \ �2007 FastenerNews.com