Hannover Messe, the world’s leading trade fair for industrial technology, will take place from 22-26 April 2024 in Germany, bringing together exhibiting companies from the mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and digital industries, and the energy sector to present solutions for the future of manufacturing and energy supply.

Key challenges facing industry today include improving competitiveness, protecting the climate and driving prosperity – and innovative technologies are crucial to meeting them. Exhibitors at Hannover Messe will demonstrate how companies can most efficiently use automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and renewable energies to achieve their goals.

Basilios Triantafillos, global director of Hannover Messe at Deutsche Messe AG, said: “Innovative technologies like those we will see at Hannover Messe are paving the way to a climate-neutral, high-performance industry. However, companies need guidance on how to apply automation, AI and energy management concepts. Furthermore, bureaucracy and a shortage of skilled workers are limiting growth potential. Hannover Messe 2024 will unlock the answers to these challenges under the lead theme of ‘Energising a Sustainable Industry’. The solution is a mix of new technologies, cross-industry collaboration and a clear political framework.”

More than 4,000 companies represent a united industrial ecosystem and demonstrate how automation, digitalisation and electrification can enable climate neutrality. Top industry trends at the fair include AI, carbon-neutral production, energy systems, Industrie 4.0 and Manufacturing-X, and hydrogen and fuel cells.

Exhibiting companies include global brands such as Amazon Web Services, Bosch Rexroth, Google Cloud, Microsoft, Salzgitter AG, SAP, Schneider Electric, and Siemens, as well as small and medium-size enterprises such as Beckhoff Automation, EBM-Pabst, Festo, ifm electronic, igus, LAPP, Pepperl+Fuchs, Pilz, Q-CELLS, Rittal, Turck, and WAGO.

Leading research organisations exhibiting include Bavaria Innovative, various Fraunhofer institutes, the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT), and Germany’s Ministry of Education and Research will focus on the current state of R&D and technology transfer. More than 300 industrial start ups will champion entrepreneurship and innovation.

Meanwhile ‘green hydrogen’ is gaining more and more traction as governments and companies invest in projects to decarbonise sectors such as manufacturing and transportation. Hannover Messe will feature around 500 companies from the hydrogen and fuel cell industry, including more than 300 under the banner of ‘Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Europe’.

Norway was recently announced as the parter country for Hannover Messe 2024. With the theme “Norway 2024: Pioneering the Green Industrial Transition”, the country will highlight its plans for converting to a low-carbon society and its key role in developing solutions within sectors such as renewable energy, carbon-neutral production, and application of green and digital solutions. A Norwegian-German Energy Conference to be held on 23 April will examine a hydrogen economy that creates investment security for infrastructure, production, transport, storage, and distribution.

Two months before elections are due to take place in the European Union (EU), Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, will kick off the programme with a speech at the opening ceremony on 21 April. The EU’s programme during the fair includes the conference “EU as Home of Decarbonized Industry” – where industry representatives can meet EU politicians to discuss topics such as the Green Deal in the European Commission Pavilion.

A shortage of skilled workers remains a challenge in industry. Your Future is Hannover Messe’s young talent initiative that encourages high school graduates, college students and young professionals to pursue careers in areas such as AI, engineering and robotics. The programme consists of meetings with potential employers, guided tours to sponsoring exhibitors, information on apprenticeship and trainee programmes, as well as networking with other participants.