Injection molding machine maker Engel Holding GmbH will launch its first virtual, interactive trade show Oct. 13-16, the dates originally planned for Fakuma 2020.
With physical events off limits for the foreseeable future, the company is resorting, like so many others, to cyberspace to present the innovations originally planned for Fakuma.
"Even in times of COVID-19, Engel's R&D pipeline is well filled," said Engel Chief Sales Officer Christoph Steger.
Understanding the importance of personal contact, the company will enable visitors to the virtual event to book appointments in advance with their sales contact or a technology expert. During the meetings, visitors will be guided around the exhibits online with the help of the Microsoft Teams video conferencing software.
The seven planned machine exhibits will be running at Engel's technical center at its headquarters in Schwertberg, Austria.
The format will include an experience zone, where attendees will also be interactively engaged with the exhibits. Targeted at, for example, process technicians, production managers or maintenance staff, appropriate tasks will be set designed to be tackled using the inject 4.0 products from Engel, showing how digitalization solutions work in a real-life setting. For visitors to the Experience Zone, it's a taste of what working in a smart factory will look like.
"The Engel live e-xperience is a live event," Steger said. A two-day conference program is planned, including Q&A opportunities via the chat function during the lecture and a live discussion after. Each lecture will be repeated once. The keynote will be delivered by CEO Stefan Engleder at the start of the event.
Engel is also organizing five Expert Talks in which product and technology experts at the company will discuss important issues impacting injection molding, such as smart machine control, data analytics, digital service concepts, innovative automation solutions and new processing technology. These lectures will offer an overview of the progress to date and discuss the opportunities opening up as these technologies develop.