Trade shows Maintenance, M+R and Worksafe Flanders 2023 score strong thanks to 5% more visitors, climbing to 5398 visitors and 300 exhibitors.

The exhibition calendar is once again falling into its familiar fold. Thus, for the first time since 2019, Antwerp Expo could open its doors again for the regular combination of trade fairs: Maintenance, M+R and Worksafe Flanders. The sold-out exhibition floor with 300 exhibitors already hinted at the best for the start. And whether the visitors appreciated it. The fair combo brought in 5,398 unique visitors, 5% more than in 2019. 

Last year was the first tentative move by Easyfairs Belgium to organize its flavored industrial trade shows. Then in a composition with Pumps & Valves instead of Worksafe. A good edition, certainly, but with the necessary caution still built in with the visitors. With this edition, we can leave the corona era completely behind us. It was bustling as ever on the exhibition floor. With many visitors, many demos, much networking in the various bars and many attentive listeners in the Masterclasses (more than 100 participants)... In short, everything a good fair needs. 

Cross-pollination on the exhibition floor 

It was striking how well the exhibitions did reinforce each other. After all, measurement and control technicians need a variety of PPE. Prevention consultants are also responsible for maintenance crew safety. And no predictive maintenance today without smart tools. So there was no shortage of cross-pollinations. All three trade shows ended in the green. 

Demos as big draw 

The choice of demos on the show floor also proved to be a hit. At M+R, it was Acta's VR and AR solutions, which virtually taught how a filtration procedure works or how to complete the inspection round before a pump was started up. At Maintenance, Skyebase demonstrated in the Drone Zone how drones can provide insightful data capture in hard-to-reach places and how to perform thickness measurements, B-scans or weld inspections with NDT inspection technology. 

Nocturne great success 

As usual, the centerpiece of the fair was the nocturne on Wednesday evening. Visitors could enjoy the ideal atmosphere for networking during an Industry After Work Event. The halls of Antwerp Expo were buzzing and buzzing with activity. Thanks to a very diverse visitor audience by the way, because the animation was done by robots. 

Innovation Awards 

Together they were able to discover who won this year's Innovation Awards. On Maintenance, the jury composed by sector federation BEMAS chose Henkel's Loctite Pulse, a digital IIoT solution to contribute to site reliability. The M+R Innovation award, presented by engineering association ie-net was for Pepperl+Fuchs' Ethernet-APL field switch for seamless, networked communication directly and unobstructed from the field level. The audience awards were for I-Care and Elscolab, respectively. In addition, Agristo was also among the winners. The potato specialist now has the Technical Team of the Year in its ranks. A recognition from BEMAS for the implementation of an EAM system across different sites. The audience award went to A&S energy for the high availability of their installations. 

Great satisfaction 

In short, Maintenance, M+R and Worksafe together accounted for two days packed with action, good conversations and interesting projects. An edition that scored in terms of quality and quantity. Afterwards, the satisfaction among the exhibitors was high. As many as 86% of the 300 exhibitors have already confirmed their participation for the next editions. For Worksafe Flanders and M+R that will be in March 2025, Maintenance will return a year earlier in combination with Pumps & Valves.