4. ORTHOPÄDIE SCHUH TECHNIK: Great mood in Cologne

Continuous high numbers of exhibitors and visitors, growing internationality and a top-class specialist programme: The 4. ORTHOPÄDIE SCHUH TECHNIK once again made for a very lively exchange in Cologne on 20 and 21 October 2017.

With 3,951 visitors, the 4. ORTHOPÄDIE SCHUH TECHNIK could even register growing numbers compared to the event in 2015 that was also well-attended. And with 175 exhibitors still more companies as in 2015 used the opportunity to present their offers and new developments to the professional audience. The event organizer C. Maurer Fachmedien had the exhibition space therefore extended to about 8,000 square meters this year.
„The ORTHOPÄDIE SCHUH TECHNIK has developed into the most important event of this trade within only few years,“ Carl Otto Maurer, managing director of C. Maurer Fachmedien, rejoiced about the positive response from the industry. „And the growing number of exhibitors and visitors from abroad shows that our event also becomes more and more important internationally.“  Every fourth exhibitor came from abroad, a big part from the Benelux-states. For the first time also companies from the USA and from Turkey were present. A delegation of the Pedorthics Association of Canada visited the trade fair and the congress as well as 20 students from the Japanese Kobe College.
The two-day congress under the motto “Fit into the future – 100 years pedorthics” scored with 30 seminars and a lecture programme with prominent speakers. The lecture programme alone attracted more than 300 participants. The congress intended to combine new findings from science with innovative technical-practical topics that will make pedorthics fit for the future.

Congress covered a wide range of topics
Five master pedorthists opened the congress on Friday with some challenging practical treatment examples. Causes and treatment options of plantar fasciitis were focused in one of the key subjects that was organized in cooperation with the society for foot and ankle joint surgery (GFFC). Metatarsalgia was discussed in an interdisciplinary way in cooperation with the German Association for foot and ankle joint (D.A.F.).
In a session carried out in cooperation with the study group pedorthics, Dr. Sicco Bus, University of Amsterdam, presented the latest studies of his renowned research group on the treatment with shoes in cases of the diabetic foot syndrome. He explained how ulcer recurrences can be avoided efficiently if the pressure distribution measurement is included systematically in the production process of foot orthotics and shoes.
How do changes in the foot caused by foot orthotics, shoes or sole modifications continue in the body? Prof. Gert-Peter Brüggemann, Deutsche Sporthochschule Köln, looked at this topic from the point of view of biomechanics. Sensorimotor expert Dr. Wolfgang Laube showed the effect of stimuli used in a targeted way beneath the foot sole on the sensorimotor system. What role the myofascial chains play in the transmission of stimuli and force across different body segments was examined by  Dr. Jan Wilke, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt.
C. Maurer Fachmedien was happy that especially many free lectures, also in English, were handed in for the congress. In order to do justice to the international participants of the congress, all lectures were interpreted simultaneously into English or from English into German.

Day of the apprentice even more successful
The day of the apprentice, organized by the ZVOS, was even better accepted than in the years before. 360 apprentices plus their teachers participated in this special day of the ORTHOPÄDIE SCHUH TECHNIK, taking place on the first trade fair day – 100 more than last time.
Numerous sponsors from industry and pedorthics supported the juniors with a travelling allowance and this time even with the fee for the apprentice seminars. Event organizer C. Maurer Fachmedien took care of free trade fair tickets. Four seminars especially designed for the knowledge of apprentices attracted them with exciting topics.

See you in Cologne in 2019
 „The trade fair was a raving success – we saw so many beaming faces among the exhibitors and visitors and we could listen to great lectures with extraordinary speakers“, that is the positive balance by event organizer Carl Otto Maurer and  Werner Dierolf, President or the Central Association Pedorthics (ZVOS), the conceptual sponsor of the trade fair. They thanked the sponsors that supported the 4. ORTHOPÄDIE SCHUH TECHNIK – gold sponsor Bauerfeind and silver sponsors Nora, Darco and Renia, the congress-sponsor Springer as well as Paromed, the sponsor of the trade fair app.
The 5. ORTHOPÄDIE SCHUH TECHNIK will take place in Cologne from 18 to 19 October 2019.