September 18, 2009 BVV Press Center – The International Engineering Fair confirmed its quality and a leading position among industrial fairs of Central Europe also in the present difficult economic situation. Among the exhibitors not even leaders of presented branches were missing, the proportion of foreign firms amounted to 37 percent. A promise for the future was the participation of 250 new exhibitors. The dominant branch Machine tools was located in the new Hall P which is the largest and most modern exhibition hall in the Central-European area.
Compared with the past year’s jubilee 50th MSV anniversary, the number of visitors dropped of ten percent. The participation of professionals agreeably surprised most exhibitors as they did not expect such a quality visitor structure. The visitors were in particular interested in the innovated products and discussed on supplies, some of them signed orders directly at the fair and concluded contracts. The proportion of foreign visitors will approach ten percent; missions of foreign businessmen came again from both the neighbouring countries and from CIS countries, regions of the Russian Federation, China, Egypt and some more countries.
The Brno Exhibition Centre drew attention of politicians, economists and also media. The National Economic Council of the Government (NERV) presented its final report at the fair. Traditional assembly of the Union of Industry and Transport CZ, attended by Prime Minister Jan Fischer and ministers of his government solved hot problems, such as state budget or support of research and development. Representatives of foreign countries, Secretary General of the European Committee for Cooperation in the Industry of Machine Tools CECIMO Philip Geerts, President of the European Logistic Association Alfonz Antoni, members of the Czech Parliament, senators, rectors of colleges and other VIP guests also attended the ceremonial opening of the fairs and the presentation of four Gold Medal Awards of MSV.
The emphasized topic Power engineering attracted a high number of professionals to the international conference “Nucleus against crisis?”, the interest of firms in the project “Modern energy sources” confirmed its importance also in oncoming runs. The other key topic was the cooperation of industry and colleges. In the new project “Transfer of technologies and innovations” altogether forty research teams and centers from ten TU and the Academy of Sciences CZ presented themselves. The fair Transport a Logistika had an extraordinary interesting accompanying program, among others the International Conference of Railways and a specialist conference by the Czech Logistic Association were staged.
Slovakia was the partner country of MSV 2009, at the fair also a cooperation exchange and a conference on businessmen environment in both countries were held. Partner country of MSV 2010 will be Austria.

Preliminary statistical data

Basic statistical data 2009 1 Number of exhibitors 1507 2 Number of participating countries 29 3 Net exhibition space in m2 51 062 4 Number of visitors 88 000*) 5 Number of accredited journalists 404

  *) qualified estimate

At BVV ticket offices foreign visitors from fifty countries were registered, most of them came from Slovakia, Germany, Poland, Hungary and Italy. From a survey if followed that 81 % of visitors have attended several MSV runs and 90 % want to come also next year. Altogether 44 % of the respondents were interested in particular in novelties of products and services, 19 % took part in negotiations and established business contacts. A total of 75 % of interviewed visitors were satisfied with their visit to the fair.
At the Press Center altogether 404 media representatives from eight countries were accredited within the first four days. Foreign journalists (83) came from Hungary, Germany, Poland, Austria, Russia, Slovakia and Switzerland.

What was said about the fairs:
Nicolas Seiwald, Commercial Counsellor of the Austrian Embassy in the Czech Republic: The participation in the Brno fair has always been inevitable for Austrian firms and a presupposition of their success on the Czech market. This is also proved by a high number of Austrian firms at the present fair. About forty are direct Austrian exhibitors, however, at least twenty firms of Austrian provenance are represented by their Czech partners. We have a high representation in the sector of logistics, but also in the branch of tooling and machine tools production, in supplies of special machines and equipment which Austrian firms are often aimed at. MSV has always been an important event for Austrian firms helping them enter foreign markets.

Jan Rýdl, SST President and Chairman of the Board of TOS Varnsdorf, a.s.: All talk about crisis and recession, but the participation of our manufacturers in this year’s MSV persuades us that we want to be prepared for a revival which we all expect. We are housed in the new Hall P which is a dignified stand for our appointments with the customers. The fact that MSV is considered by the specialist public a fair of a good standard also proves that even without IMT which is staged once in two years, MSV was visited by the Secretary General of CECIMO Philip Geerts. It is a confirmation of a high MSV prestige.

Petr Nasadil, Omnis Olomouc, a.s.:In our opinion, MSV was successful, for the first time we organized an Exchange of production capacities, where fifty enterprises were presented, offering free capacities in the metal-working industry. We were surprised at the great interest in this event, the requirement is topical due to a drop of orders and production in a number of industrial enterprises. In Brno, firms were also able to acquire new sub-deliverers of a lower price offers.

Pavel Jurda, Institute of Production Machines and Equipment, Engineering Faculty ČVUT Prague: At MSV we present a new variable handling system. It was developed for teaching purposes and aimed at acquainting the students with currently used tools for automation systems. Students and also people employed in industry come to our stand and ask for contacts. Responses have been good so far. Also promotion in specialist periodicals helps us, as the general public is informed.

Jan Dvořák, Marketing Specialist of ŠKODA TRANSPORTATION s.r.o.: We consider MS together with the Transport a Logistika Fair one of the most important in the branch. Its potential consists in presenting our products to the general public and also to the representatives of the government, regions and cities. We would like to persuade everybody of our topical quality products and what they can offer in a public transport of people.

Stefan Schaffhauser, Sales and Marketing Manager, STS Senzor Technik Sirnach AG, Switzerland: We are greatly satisfied with business negotiations with our Czech colleagues, we did not expect such a high interest in our offers. The STS products are specific and we therefore look for top professionals for our projects in the Czech Republic. It can be said that a number of excellent specialists are in your country and that we found at the fair, what we were looking for.

Dalibor Eliáš, Sales Engineer of the company THK GmbH – sales office Prague: We were satisfied with our location in Hall P, with the environment of this hall and also with fair organization. Hall P is different from the other halls, where we used to exhibit in the past.We are enthusiastic over the number of visitors.

Jaroslav Meduna, Technical Manager of the company STASTO Automation s.r.o.: Our exhibits aroused interest of the visitors and we shall see, what will be the business effect like. I have been here twenty times, however, it is very difficult to appraise the present MSV. It was of interest that the fair started as early as on Monday morning and every morning our stand was fully crowded. I think that we will have more contacts and discussions than last year, which is surprising.

Hynek Jakubíček, Product Manager of SI, Mann+Hummel (CZ) s.r.o.: The participation in the fair is a little lower than usually, but we have a similar number of visitors to our stand as last year, may-be even higher, so that we are satisfied. About a half are existing customers, the other half are new. Business results will be found later, we shall see.

Petr Pithart, Commercial Manager of SIGMET spol. s r.o.:
We were agreeably surprised at the fair. We like our new location in Hall F and the number of visitors is higher than expected. As businessmen we are satisfied this year.

The above information is preliminary only. The definitive final report will be published by BVV Trade Fairs Brno after all statistical data have been audited . The statistical data given are based on the principles laid down by UFI (The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry) Paris.