Successful novelties at the reunion in Cologne
On 23 and 24 October 2015 the 3. ORTHOPÄDIE SCHUH TECHNIK took place in Cologne. The meeting of the industry convinced by its unique position in the international trade fair and congress events the exhibitors as well as the visitors. Two trends were confirmed: Trade fair and congress became bigger and more international.
The 3. ORTHOPÄDIE SCHUH TECHNIK – International trade fair
and congress was more successful than ever with more than
3.800 visitors.
Exhibition in greater demand than ever
Already in the run-up to the trade fair it could be seen that the 3. ORTHOPÄDIE SCHUH TECHNIK is further growing: with 8250 square meters the exhibition and congress area was as big as never before - an increase of 18 per cent. Not only the bigger stands of many exhibitors contributed to that, also some new companies were present. For example some start-ups presented their services to the audience within their own trade fair area. And also from abroad more exhibitors had a stand than two years ago in Cologne - altogether 165 companies were represented at the industry's event, 15 per cent more than in 2013. "Such an extensive and concentrated overview of orthopedic shoe technology cannot be found anywhere else in the world. The best conditions for a successful trade fair", event-organizer Carl Otto Maurer, who heads C. Maurer Fachmedien GmbH from Geislingen, was thrilled by the development already during the opening of the trade fair.
The attendance of both trade fair and congress days proved him right: 3852 visitors from almost 40 countries came to the city at the Rhine and used the industry's event to get informed, to exchange ideas, to learn something new and to get further educated. At the trade fair itself as well as at the congress and the parallel seminars the numbers of participants by far exceeded those of the two previous events in 2011 and 2013 - almost all of the seminars were fully booked. "This shows that we chose the right selection of topics. We increased the seating capacity of the congress so that spontaneous visitors could also participate," Carl Otto Maurer stroke a positive balance also for the specialist program.
The meeting of the industry in 2015 was supposed to be an event of short distances, that is why trade fair and congress were close together, congress and seminars however, in new rooms. Here once more a practice-oriented lecture program was offered, received with great interest by visitors from all over the world. As already in 2013, simultaneous interpreting was offered for the international guests. Two of the congress speakers enabled a separate lecture on special treatment case studies translated into Japanese for a group of visitors from Japan.
In dialogue with politics
The topic diabetes has engaged orthopedic shoe technology for more than 20 years and thus it was also focused at the congress. With the member of the Bundestag Dietrich Monstadt, a fellow campaigner could be won for the prevention of diabetes, because the essential content of the national diabetes strategy, whose main features Monstadt presented in his lecture, comes from him.
Within the framework of a panel discussion ZDH-president Hans Peter Wollseifer, Dr. Dirk Hochlenert (AG Diabetischer Fuß der DDG) and ZVOS-president Werner Dierolf discussed afterwards how sequels can be prevented and how the contractual situation within the treatment of the diabetic foot can be improved. Then, walking through the trade fair, Hans Peter Wollseifer was impressed by the size and the good attendance of the event.
The member of the Bundestag Dietrich Monstadt (center)
discussed with ZDH-president Hans Peter Wollseifer (2. from left),
Dr. Dirk Hochlenert (l.), ZVOS-president Werner Dierolf (2. from right)
and Wolfgang Best (r.), editor-in-chief of "Orthopädieschuhtechnik"
how sequels can be prevented and how the contractual situation
during the treatment of the diabetic foot can be improved.
Young people scented trade fair air
Also the "apprentice day" was greeted with great interest again. On Friday all apprentices of orthopedic shoe technology were invited to Cologne, organized by the Central Association of Orthopedic Shoe Technology (ZVOS). Free entrance, travelling allowance, born by a sponsor club, and a specialist program - young orthopedic shoemakers from all of Germany, Austria and even Japan used the possibility to exchange a day of school and workshop for the trade fair events. Not only the apprentices themselves enjoyed this, but also the exhibitors were happy about the contact with their customers of tomorrow and so many interested guests at their stands.
In three seminars, offered especially for apprentices, there was some teaching done in the end and at the FORUM, the stage of the trade fair hall, the importance of manual skills was shown in exciting lectures and in a panel discussion. And then there was the CAMPUS-area, where German master schools of orthopedic shoe technology and the university of applied sciences Münster presented their course offer - an offer not only interesting for apprentices. They were also attracted by the new exciting over-all concept "Crime scene foot" . Here you had to match a huge foot print to the potential "offender", whose profiles could be found at the stands of the educational institutions.
More international and for the first time with a poster presentation
It was very important to the event-organizer to have scientists and "manual workers" talk together. For the first time a poster presentation was organized for this reason - placed in the trade fair hall. It is supposed to offer the opportunity also in the future to present works in a simple manner within a scientific framework. Scientific congresses cannot be imagined without posters. Study results and case studies are being presented here. They offer new findings and make sure that knowledge is spread and questions are discussed among colleagues. The prize of the jury this year was awarded to Kris Cuppens, Thomas More MOBILAB Belgium, with the poster "Reliability of foot assessments and the relation to gait lab measurements". The audience elected the poster of Dr. Martin Daumer and colleagues with the title "Development and testing of a new type of barefoot running shoe: The freeheel runningpad" to be the winner.
The IVO used the event in Cologne for a delegate assembly of its members and presented its latest project within the framework of a seminar: The services of orthopedic shoe technology shall be included in the canon of health services of the WHO. Especially countries where orthopedic shoe technology is still being developed, would have an important reference for the design of education and treatment structures.
The congress again was interpreted simultaneously into English,
so that international visitors could follow the specialist lectures.
Cologne, we will come again in 2017!
On 20 and 21 October 2017 we will come back to Cologne! You can find information on the 4. ORTHOPÄDIE SCHUH TECHNIK at www.OST-Messe.de.
Fotos of the event can be found in the online-galleries.
The stage of the FORUM was one of the attractions in the trade
fair hall. Kathrin Ernsting not only presented herself, she and her
feet were also part of the program in the panel discussion on the
production of foot orthotics.
