Subcontracting exhibition Midest combines technology and business as they concern subcontracting, and the event is increasingly becoming a place to catch up on technology, observed Midest director Dominque Perrin-Figeac.
Midest 2001, the 31st International Industrial Subcontracting Exhibition, takes place from Tuesday November 20 to Friday November 23 at the Paris-Nord Villepinte Exhibition Centre. The event this time will occupy halls 5 and 5B and a total area of 7000 sq m.
"It is first and foremost a forum for commercial contacts and a major opportunity for all those taking part to raise their profile. However, it is becoming more and more a place to monitor technology, as is shown by the increasing number of visitors from the technical and research and development departments of companies, design studios, engineers and project leaders," said Perrin-Figeac.
The official said such staff now accounted for 30 per cent of all visitors. "Midest is a place to buy and sell knowhow, but, more and more, it is also a place to discover new processes, to compare and to choose technical solutions. This trend is one that has consistently strengthened over the years. We consider it to be a positive one and we have developed services to complement it."
The services included, he said, business meetings, the partnership exchange and technology centres. "Their success proves we were right," he added.
Midest 2001 has been divided into six major sectors with a view to allowing exhibitors to showcase their expertise: plastics, rubber, composite processing; tooling, moulds, models; electronics and electricity; microtechnics; industry services (engineering, research, quality/industrial maintenance; metal processing.
Metal processing is the largest sector in the show and is made up of cutting, machining, special machines, finishing, thermal and surface treatments, industrial fasters, forge, foundry, fabrication, semi-finished products, forming processes in sheet metal work and national and regional participations.
Midest estimated that the total billing for European subcontracting in 1999 (the latest year for which figures are currently available) at Euro 361.44 billion, representing 14.6 per cent of the European Union's industrial output. Growth compared with the previous year was 2.9 per cent. Assessments for 2000 indicated a stronger growth in the region of 5 per cent, it said. "However, these figures conceal significant differences between specialist areas and countries," it said. "Electronics subcontracting generally drives the results up, and this sector experiences annual growth rates in excess of 5 per cent or even 10 per cent or 15 per cent due to the boom in telephony, IT and automobile electronics. On the other hand, textile and garment working continues to contract by over 10 per cent per year across the whole of the European Union.
"This is the sector in which international competition has made the deepest inroads."
Promoting Midest 2001, the company said it was an effective tool for delivering information and monitoring technology and for market observation that worked for both exhibitors and visitors.
Emphasising the role of the technology centres, it said they were organised in partnership with Cetim (the mechanical engineering industries technical centre) and Gist associations (joint subcontracting group). Their specialists would offer information on industries and on the performance and development of processes.
"This year, IT and the Internet will enhance the availability and quality of the services offered by these centres. They will be linked to Midest's system for guiding visitors, and Cetim plans to create direct links via the Internet with its establishments and specialists in order to provide more extensive and rapid information," it said.
Midest also projected that this year's show would be a key meeting place for customers and subcontractors.
"Launched at Midest 2000, this innovative system for matching supply and demand in the technical areas of subcontracting generated nearly 400 meetings. Meetings are arranged between customers who have specifically requested particular skills and suppliers who match their requirements," it said. The meetings take place at the show, either on the stands or in the specially laid-out Business Meeting Area".
Describing the Partnership Exchange, it said: "Set up in 2000 on the Midest www.midest.com site, this partnership search service established contacts through an email and classified advertisement system that has been permanently operating since its launch.
Over 130 partnership offers and requests are currently posted on the site and access is free."
It added that the web site was regularly updated and served as a permanent source of information. It had nearly 1000,000 visitors in 2000.
