With exhibitors and visitors having high expectations of INTERGEO as an international business platform, Jens Lichte says the organisers are going all-out to position this year’s event in Hamburg as a truly global gathering

Hinte GmbH and DVW – the German Society for Geodesy, Geoinformation and Land Management – have set the stage for future development of the trade fair and conference by announcing its new subtitle: “The Global Hub of the Geospatial Community.”

No.1 international platform

Christoph Hinte, Managing Director of HINTE GmbH and a significant force behind INTERGEO as an international meeting place, says, “With this new claim, we are underlining a development that has underway for some years. In 2015, for example, more than a third of visitors came from abroad. This growing overseas presence is in line with the expectations of exhibitors, two thirds of whom see the internationalisation of INTERGEO as key to future prospects.”

Anglo-German partnership

This global outreach will be further reinforced at INTERGEO with the choice of a different partner country for each year’s event. For 2016, the partner country is the United Kingdom. Its geographical proximity to Hamburg was a key factor in the decision to expand this partnership beyond the UK Pavilion that has featured in the exhibition for the past three years. Alongside this presence, there will be closer coordination of bilateral issues for which INTERGEO will serve as a vehicle, thereby encouraging business contacts between exhibitors and visitors from Germany and the partner country.

Building bridges (and cities)

In many ways, the bridge between Hamburg and the UK for 2016 already exists. Of all the countries in the EU, it is in Great Britain that Building Information Modelling (BIM) is currently at the most advanced stage in terms of discussion and implementation. In Germany, Hamburg is regarded as the city most deserving of the moniker Smart City. BIM and Smart City both aim to manage buildings and cities intelligently using information technology and make them fit for the future economically, socially and ecologically. In different ways, BIM and Smart City are two sides of the same coin – boosting the quality of urban living using Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and balancing the economic and ecological management of buildings.

The cities chosen to host INTERGEO in 2017 and 2018 also reflect this move toward greater internationalisation. Berlin and Frankfurt are both trade fair locations of international standing.