When the Nordic region’s biggest forestry fair, SkogsElmia, concluded its 2019 edition, it was with a positive mood among both exhibitors and visitors. More than 300 exhibitors from 21 countries showcased and demonstrated forestry machinery, tools, and equipment to just over 20 400 visitors.
The theme of this year’s fair was on forest ownership of the future. According to the organisers Elmia AB, visitors brought with them “high spirits, curiosity and a desire to invest”. Visitors described the fair as “a fair well worth visiting”.
While the afternoon of day three – the last day of the show – brought with it a heavy rain shower, many visitors moved further into the exhibitor tents creating an excellent opportunity for the last handshakes and business deals of the day.
As an exhibitor strategically located in stand 196 at the intersection of the various trails and press centre, Bioenergy International can only concur.
Exhibitor and visitor expectations were reasonable and well matched while the new event management team at Elmia have seemingly worked seamlessly during the three days.
In all the time I’ve been at Elmia’s forestry fairs, we’ve never sold as much as at this year’s SkogsElmia. Basically, everyone who walked by our stand has been a potential customer, commented Rickard Ellander Svensson, CEO of Skogma in the neighbouring stand.
As a seasoned exhibitor that has participated at countless editions, Svensson ought to know. Numerous other exhibitors also remarked on SkogsElmia 2019 as being an important meeting place not least for the social in-real-life (IRL) interaction.
Elmia’s forestry fairs have been one of our most important marketing activities since 1989. Demonstrations and trade fairs become more important as there are more and more marketing channels online, commented Bengt-Olov Byström, founder of the mobile sawmilling concept Logosol and another seasoned exhibitor.
There was also plenty of news big and small ranging from disruptive and potentially revolutionary to filling educational gaps with an “I didn’t know that”.
In short, it all bodes well for what could very well be in some respects a fundamentally different Elmia Wood, in Bratteborg on May 18-21, 2021 – depending on how disrupted the wood and fibre flow from forests to wood processing industries, including biomass fuels, have become in the meantime.
