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Top executives attend
ZOW in Bad Salzuflen is the industry venue

Positive feedback throughout the industry: Exhibitors and visitors rated the 17th ZOW, supplier fair East Westphalia, as a successful event with many great business contacts. Between 14 and 17 February 2011, the presence of 500 exhibitors from 30 countries worldwide brought roughly 15,000 visitors to East-Westphalia. They showed the entire range of innovative supplier fairs for the sophisticated furniture of tomorrow. Making up roughly 70%, the majority of visitors came from Germany. Poland, the Netherlands, Italy, Great Britain and France were at the helm of the international visitor ranking.

“We are very happy about the fair going this well and that our customers are satisfied with the results – one third of the exhibition space has already been sold for 2012”, says Horst Rudolph, managing director of ZOW organiser Clarion Survey. The most important representatives from politics and the economy came to Bad Salzuflen, since ZOW is very important for the region of East-Westphalia-Lippe. During the four days of the fair, the top executives of the most renowned manufacturing companies from Europe’s largest furniture cluster attended ZOW. Andreas Bielefeld, head of product development at Nobilia says: “For us, ZOW in Bad Salzuflen is one of the most important fairs. Both the date and the location are ideal, while the open, communicative atmosphere promotes business.” Many exhibitors who did not have a booth at ZOW 2011 came to the fair as visitors also.

Intense visitor marketing throughout the core target market Germany and many other Central European countries made the success of ZOW 2011 possible. For this, event organiser Clarion Survey uses traditional advertising and PR tools, but also modern means of communication, such as the new iPhone App. “This service has been accepted wonderfully,” says marketing manager Margarete Meyer. The new ZOW-Premium-Club, which is reserved for the executives of the exhibiting and visiting companies, was also hailed by these companies. Until the start of ZOW 2012, many additional measures of modernisation are planned. They include corporate identity, modular designs, catering and much more. Managing director Horst Rudolph stresses the importance of a new advisory board for the trade fair, with representatives of the important product segments represented at ZOW. “Together, we want to make ZOW fit for the future”, says Rudolph.

“fabrics by ZOW”: Great business contacts

The product segments represented at ZOW include, for example, fittings, surfaces, materials, semi-finished pproducts, elements, systems and since 2011, furniture fabrics and upholstery materials. Under the motto “fabrics by ZOW”, supplier companies from the seating and upholstered furniture industries such as Antecuir, Interfabrics and Textum are presenting their products in Bad Salzuflen in the run-up to the MOW fair in May. Deniz Özer, sales manager at Textum says: “We took advantage of the opportunity to exhibit at ZOW and we were able to make many new contacts.” The purchasers of the seating and upholstered furniture industries that have been attending ZOW for a while, took great interest in “fabrics by ZOW” and would like to see more exhibitors representing this product segment at ZOW in the future.

A hot topic at ZOW 2011, which was given a forum in hall 22.2, is lightweight construction – made by igeL and organised by igeL. Here, more than 20 companies from the German Lightweight Construction Association “igeL” (Interessengemeinschaft Leichtbau e.V.) showed their latest lightweight construction solutions for the furniture and interior design world. Companies, such as Axxor, Döllken, Egger, Jowat, Hettich, Moralt and Torwegge, but also representatives from the relevant universities, as well as the “Lightweight Construction Initiative East-Westphalia-Lippe” (Leichtbauoffensive OWL) were present. Professor Martin Stosch, chairman at igeL says: “The manufacturers are developing new wood composites that are very solid, but light at the same time. This is going to significantly change furniture design and functionality and thus create new buying incentives for customers.

Lighting design in the a-lounge

LEDs in all of their various application forms are the key-term for the design and light trends in 2011. ZOW visitors were able to see this for themselves in the architecture lounge (a-lounge), which has been a fixed venue for architects and designers since 2007. The showcases of Elektra, Halemeier, Hella, LED-Linear, Roelens, RvP Rudolph von Prusky and Wilhelm Koch showed the entire innovative strength of light for furniture and interior design. Industry expert Eckhard Halemeier says: “A hot topic of 2011 are extensive LED applications, which can be perfectly integrated into furniture, walls or ceilings, thus creating new design worlds both in terms of functionality, as well as emotionality.” The exhibition in the a-lounge proved this impressively.

Last but not least, the Danish joint booth in hall 20 also became a
visitor magnet at ZOW. Eleven innovative supplier companies from Denmark showed sophisticated design art from up North. This is to be continued at the next ZOW in Bad Salzuflen, running between 6 and 9 February 2012.

ZOW 2012
6 - 9 February 2012
Bad Salzuflen Exhibition Centre
www.zow.de