All in the K show family

Düsseldorf, Germany — There's a pair of claw machines on one side of the rather large Covestro AG booth during K 2019, and it was a happy place for little Milena Schaefers.

Five-year-old Milena was just one of a string of children finding their way to the machines, along with their fathers and mothers and grandfathers and grandmothers on Oct. 20.

The claw machines, set up for all of the K 2019 show, which ends Oct. 23, were getting an especially strong workout as folks from around the world descended on Messe Düsseldorf for family day at the show.

This was not your typical trade fair crowd. Sure, there were plenty of business suits walking past, paying no mind to what was going on.

But for some of the crowd, the day was about more than profit margins or chemical formulations or cycle times.

Grandparents and parents who may be captains of industry during the week were instead negotiating with little ones who gave no regard to business ranking. Toddlers toddled, children scurried and teens had time to start thinking about whether they want to pursue a career in plastics.

For Anton Schäfers, who works for Covestro, the claw machines were a natural stop for his family, which includes his wife, Izabela, and their children, Milena and 3-year-old son Malte.

The drive was an easy one from the family home in Kaarst, Germany, maybe 20 minutes from Düsseldorf.

"I've been here on a business purpose or the past four days. So today my kids want to know where Daddy's working, so we decided to go here. I think they are pretty interested and are enjoying to see what Daddy's doing and where he is working.

"Because usually it's quite hard to explain what a global key account manager does, they enjoy being here at the fair and at the show to get an impression," Schäfers said.

"Honestly speaking, I hope that they will [see] educated people who love what they do. I don't want to provide a clear picture to them. Just let them go and just be happy about what they are doing," he added.

Milena, meanwhile, was scooped up in her father's arms and talked about her day at the show. She was a little shy but said through her father's translation that she was enjoying her day.

"She said she likes to be here," her father said as Milena was clutching a little duck she was given by playing what she called "the ball-grabber game."

Not too far away, Guido Hollweg of Bonn, Germany, was taking a load off with his grandson Alexander Hollweg as part of their family's day at the show.

Alexander, 16, is still in high school and has some time to decide what he wants to do for a career. But with a grandfather who retired after decades in the plastics industry and parents with plastics industry experience, the teen was being given plenty of exposure to the business.

"I'm impressed with the machines part. That was very interesting. And they were very big machines. I didn't know that it's so hard to make plastic things," Alexander Hollweg said.

When asked if he was going to follow his family's footsteps into plastics, the teen gave a definite maybe.

"Right now, I'm interested in finance. Maybe I do a bit of both. For example, I can go to a plastics company as finance," he said.

Guido Hollweg said he was enjoying the opportunity to explain the ins and outs of the business, to a certain degree, to his grandson.

"I like it very much to teach him, to show him all the details," Guido Hollweg said. "I can explain it to him in the simplest way [about] the complicated machinery. It's very interesting for young people."

Solveig Huehn was with her son Ethan Huehn, 13, on the show floor. The family, from Nuremberg, Germany, was learning all about the plastics industry during its first time at the K show.

Neither is involved in the business directly. Solveig Huehn is dating someone who works in the sector.

"I am the girlfriend," she said. "We are here [for the] first time and never before I have seen this one. And now I know what makes the world with plastic."

Ethan Huehn was impressed by the machinery and was happy to learn more about plastics used for safety in the automotive industry.

"We try but it's so much to see, I don't think we can see, we can get to all of the things today so maybe next time," Huehn said. "It's really amazing."

"It's crazy," Solveig Huehn said about the size of some of the machinery she saw. "It's really interesting."