(Germany) – With more visitors, exhibitors and exhibition space, Light + Building 2016 was more international than ever before.

2,589 exhibitors (2014: 2,495*) from 55 countries launched their new products onto the world market on around 248,500 square metres of exhibition space (2014: 245,000 square metres*). A total of 216,000 trade visitors (2014: 211,232*) from 160 countries made their way to the Exhibition Centre in Frankfurt am Main from 13 to 18 March 2016, to
discover innovations, solutions and new products. This represents growth of 2.3 percentage points. “We are extremely pleased with this year’s Light + Building and delighted with the further increase in the indices. This underscores the significance of Light + Building as the
world’s leading trade fair for lighting and building services technology, as well as the positive mood in the sector and the on-going high level of exhibitor satisfaction”, said Wolfgang Marzin, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Messe Frankfurt.

The level of internationality also rose in comparison with the previous event: 67 % of exhibitors (2014: 63 %) and 49 % of visitors (2014: 47) came from outside Germany. The best-represented visitor nations after Germany were Italy, The
Netherlands, France, United Kingdom and China. Considerable growth was also noted in the number of visitors from Spain and East European countries, such as Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania, as well as from Turkey, India, Morocco and Iran.

The spotlight of this year’s Light + Building was on digitalisation. Accordingly, the motto of the fair was, ‘Where modern spaces come to life: digital – individual – networked’. The industry showed intelligent solutions and future-oriented technologies revolving around digitalisation and networking, as well as the latest design trends. In this connection, the focus was not only on trends in the lighting market and the influence of light on people but also on networked safety and security, intelligent home and building automation and efficient energy management. These  key issues were also taken up in the multi-faceted complementary programme of events and enlarged on in expert lectures.

Within the decorative sector, Light + Building Trends 2016-17 was a notable display highlighting current market developments and bringing them together in four style worlds. They give a complete overview of the season’s dominant materials, colours and shapes and offer a valuable guide to manufacturers, retailers and designers. darc‘s next issue will feature a full report on the show’s decorative lighting sector.

Visitors could see a demonstration of human centric lighting at the ‘Through the day with smart lighting’ special show, which offered an overview of the possibilities in the world of smart lighting. “New research results have shown that light also has a biological impact and that people’s daily rhythm is determined by light. The lighting industry has taken account of this in its products and solutions with the aim of providing optimum support for people. Light + Building is the highlight where the sector presents all facets of the future-oriented subject of human centric lighting. In 2016, the lighting solutions for the various aspects of daily life focused on networking, which permits additional energy-efficiency potential to be exploited and, in particular, greater convenience and benefits for users. In the future, I believe we will see even more lighting solutions characterised by supplementary advantages and, therefore, new business models that will enrich the sector”, says Dr Jürgen Waldorf, Director of the ZVEI Lighting Association.

The German exhibitors taking part in the Messe Frankfurt survey on the current economic situation were very pleased with business at the fair – 85% of respondents rated the current economic situation as being satisfactory to good. Asked about their overall opinion of the fair, around 90% of exhibitors gave the top marks. On the visitor side, the rating remained stable at 98%.

Daniel Hager, Chairman of the Hager Group Board said, “Light + Building 2016 was electrifying in all respects. Thousands of visitors from different countries came to our exhibition stand to find out more about subjects such as energy storage, manufacturing solutions and the smart home. If proof was ever necessary that our sector is both future-oriented and dynamic, Light + Building provided impressive evidence of it.”

Light + Building goes City: during the evenings, Luminale created a link between the fair and the city. Concurrently with the world’s leading trade fair for the sector, the Biennale of Lighting Culture presented over 200 lighting installations in the Rhine-Main region. This year, the ‘urban lighting laboratory’ attracted almost 200,000 people. The combination of trade fair and metropolitan experience transformed the Rhine-Main region into a unique meeting place for everyone interested in lighting and, for the eighth time, presented an unrivalled opportunity to see architecture in a completely new light and fascinating lighting concepts in the urban landscape.

The next Light + Building will be held from March 18 to 23 2018.

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