Lounges 2014 – a popular meeting point for the cleanroom industry

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"Very satisfied" showed Ulrich Rothgerber from the lounge organizer Inspire Eventmanagement with the lounges 2014, which took place for the first time at Messe Stuttgart. 276 exhibitors presented themselves from June 3rd to 5th in Hall 1 at the lounges as well as VisionPharma and Innovation-Food. 8,300 visitors registered this year, around 200 more than last year in Karlsruhe. For the new location, Rothgerber cites not only Stuttgart's international reputation but also its good connection to the national and international transportation network.

Both exhibitors and visitors received the lounge concept very well. With this innovative and forward-looking platform, it combines the idea of a trade fair with the goals of a lecture event in a pleasant environment. Around 250 lectures were part of this year's program, along with 48 action stages and 25 product shows. "We offer customers something like a piano with many keys that just need to be played," describes Rothgerber the concept.

Even before the current trade fair date, the organizers set the course for the lounges 2015, which will again take place in Stuttgart from May 19th to 21st. A focus topic will be the "Cold Chain" sector, covering the controlled transport of pharmaceutical products. Additionally, Swiss companies from the cleanroom industry will present themselves.

reinraum online spoke with some exhibitors at the lounges 2014:

Several innovations were presented by PPS – Pfennig Reinigungstechnik GmbH from Durach at the lounges 2014: With the Clino CR4, the Allgäu-based company offers a cleaning trolley for cleanrooms, which can be equipped for various requirements thanks to its modular design. Also new: the "Mopfloat GMP" system. It ensures that mops are always moistened with the same amount of liquid. For PPS managing director Dietmar Pfennig, visiting the lounges is one of the most important dates of the year. "There was really a lot going on at our booth," he was pleased to say. Pfennig sees the lounges as an important place to meet his existing customers. "The cleanroom industry is already like a family."

New to this family is CWS-boco Deutschland GmbH. Werner Münnich, Team Leader Business Development, felt "very comfortable" with his team at the lounges. Since late May, the company has operated a cleanroom laundry in Heidenheim an der Brenz and offers cleanroom clothing from the "boco cleanroom line" collection for leasing. Customers can choose from 16 items, each offered for sterile and non-sterile areas. Münnich is certain: "We will also participate in the lounges in the future." He was convinced not only by the special character of the trade fair but also by the visitors. "They were all professionals with whom we could discuss very specific topics."

For more than 75 years, the Gerflor Group has been a globally leading specialist in high-quality flooring and wall protection solutions. At the lounges 2014, the company not only presented its current collections for the cleanroom, such as Mipolam EL and the loose-lay GTI Control, but also showcased the revised corner system on the action stage, "which allows for easy and clean installation of floors in both interior and exterior corners," explained Christoph Haas, Head of Key Account Industry. He also sees a bright future: "We will definitely be back at the next lounges." He found the catering concept of the lounges with various themed bars to be very pleasant for exhibitors and visitors.

The "great concept" of the lounges was also praised by Egon Buchta, Managing Director and Partner of "Ingenieurbüro & Reinraumservice Egon Buchta GmbH" from Wannweil near Reutlingen, which specializes in maintenance and certification of cleanrooms. "Since services are hard to showcase, we simply brought our table football," said Buchta, who was pleased not only with good technical discussions with old and new customers but also with exciting matches. He especially liked the better transportation connections at the new Stuttgart lounge location compared to Karlsruhe. He also appreciated the good organization of the trade fair. "We only had to upload our graphics and choose the color of the carpet."

Business owner Achim Kuhnert and his team, Dr. Lutz Behle and Veronika Betz, informed visitors about monitoring systems and particle counters for cleanrooms at the stand of "MT Messtechnik GmbH" from Adelzhausen. With the Apex-Line from the American manufacturer Lighthouse, "we are showcasing a new generation of particle counters where the sensors monitor themselves," explained Kuhnert. The new devices respond to the increasing demand for sensors resistant to H2O2. The MT Messtechnik team praised the 2014 lounges as a "wonderful trade fair" and looked forward to many interesting customer discussions.

For Andy Todd from England, Area Sales Manager North Europe at the US company Steris, the new Stuttgart lounge location is a gain. He could "transfer directly from the plane to the trade fair." Participating in the lounges is worthwhile for his company "because we reach exactly our target group here." Steris, a pioneer of low-temperature sterilization, presented among other things the biocontamination service for facilities and devices, which is offered for maintenance routines and operations after hazardous events. Steris mainly works with hydrogen peroxide vapor, a dry low-temperature steam suitable for many sensitive materials.

With over ten years of experience in cleanroom cleaning, Timo Speck, Managing Director of Mikroclean from Grafenberg, Baden-Württemberg, looks back. Since 2011, he has been running his own company. He participated as an exhibitor at the lounges for the first time after repeatedly attending as a visitor in the past. He was pleased with many contacts at his booth, both with existing customers and new prospects. He especially described the second lounge day as "super" and plans to continue using the lounges as an industry meeting point to promote his services (initial, interval, and maintenance cleaning) and training.

For Jürgen Fuchs, Key Account Manager of the flooring specialist "Forbo Flooring GmbH," the journey to the lounges is always worthwhile. "This is one of the best trade fairs for us," he said, adding: "A real industry meeting." Forbo presented, among other things, the Colorex collection, which, as the name suggests, brings color into the cleanroom. The tiles, cut from densely pressed blocks, can be processed in three ways: firmly glued, applied to a raised floor, or loosely laid with a tongue-and-groove system. The experts from Forbo demonstrated on their action area how this works in practice and how not only clean wall finishes and corners can be realized but also repairs can be carried out.

Testo Industrial Services GmbH, a subsidiary of Testo AG, is dedicated to calibration, qualification, and validation of cleanrooms. "Over the past 15 years, we have grown from 23 to 550 employees," explained Stefan Erens, Business Unit Manager GMP/GxP-Services Sales. Year after year, they achieve a revenue growth of 15 percent. At the lounges, Erens and his team also informed about the company's new cleanroom in Kirchzarten in the Black Forest, which is used for their own training and seminars but is also rented out externally (including for photo shoots). He especially appreciates the lectures and the close interaction between visitors and exhibitors at the lounges, which significantly differs from the usual trade fair approach.

For decades, the particle counters, airborne microbial samplers, and molecular gas analysis devices from the US manufacturer "Particle Measuring Systems" (PMS) have been available on the German market; since 2011, a dedicated subsidiary has been responsible for sales. Its General Manager Dr. Raymond Jansen used the 2014 lounges to attract new prospects to PMS's offerings. He was very satisfied with the number and quality of contacts. One of the innovations he introduced was the "BioCapt Single Use" airborne microbial sampler, which, thanks to its simple handling, helps prevent false-positive results caused by microbes introduced afterwards. Since this often avoids elaborate investigations, the use of disposable samplers usually pays off quickly.