WTE at IFAT 2024: 5 days full of inspiring talks, lively discussions and innovative impulses

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From 13 to 17 May 2024, everything in Munich was about water, wastewater, recycling and municipal technology. As the world’s most important trade fair for environmental technologies, IFAT once again brought together the most important international industry representatives from politics, business and science. The WTE Group took the opportunity to present its holistic solutions for the water industry to a wide audience and welcomed a large number of customers, partners and interested parties to its own stand.

Active dialogue during panel discussions

This year’s WTE trade fair appearance was characterised by sustainability, but also by openness and active exchange. Our stand was not just a place for internal discussions, but was also open to new visitors and topics. Panel discussions on various water management topics were therefore held several times a day during the week of the trade fair to promote an open exchange of views between experts. A concept that worked: In combination with the open, modern stand design, the discussion panels attracted numerous visitors to our stand to shed light on current challenges and opportunities for the water industry.
Podiumsdiskussion am WTE Messestand auf der IFAT 2024Panel discussion about ‘Digital solutions in business services’ with Anja Eimer from Siemens and Kelly Thompson from Global Water Intelligence.

Sustainability – presented and lived

As already mentioned, our trade fair stand was strongly focussed on sustainability. Already used in 2016, 2018 and 2022, it was also used in 2024 – in a partially redesigned form. We focussed heavily on sustainable materials in the design. For example, the carpet used was made from 100 per cent recycled PET material. All plants will be reused after the trade fair and other stand materials that WTE cannot reuse itself will be passed on to charitable initiatives in cooperation with a partner company. In this way, we ensure that reusable materials remain in the cycle – and that leftovers become raw materials again. Last but not least, suppliers are selected according to their proximity to the delivery location in order to shorten transport routes.
This year’s WTE trade fair stand – sustainable, modern and communicative.

Digital communication and virtual trade fair stand

Also the switch to digital communication is both sustainable and contemporary: At our trade fair stand, we had almost completely switched from film prints to digital screen communication. This time, visitors to our stand were able to find out about our projects and software solutions through appealing videos and presentations and be inspired by virtual 3D tours.

For all those who were unable to attend IFAT, we have created a high-quality 3D scan of our trade fair stand, which enables a virtual tour of the stand. You can find the virtual exhibition stand here:

http://www.mediaforbrands.alfahosting.org/tours/WTE/WTE_IFAT_MFB.html

This year’s IFAT in numbers – record-breaking in more than one way

  • Larger than ever before: 300,000 square metres of exhibition space
  • More international than ever: over 50% of visitors and 55% of exhibitors came from abroad
  • More exhibitors: A total of 3,211 exhibitors from 61 countries and regions (227 more than two years ago)
  • Significantly more visitors: 142,000 visitors from almost 170 countries and regions (23,000 more than two years ago)
  • Continuation of the proven successful concept: 5 days of discussions, inspiration and networking in 18 halls

Many thanks to everyone involved

Finally, a big thank you to all customers, partners, interested parties and contributors of WTE for a great IFAT 2024! Thanks to your commitment and interest, the trade fair has become the success that we have experienced together. Special thanks also go to the speakers in our panel discussions, who shared their expertise with us and all visitors and presented exciting new perspectives.

Save the Date – IFAT 2026

After IFAT is before IFAT! The world’s leading trade fair for environmental technologies will open its doors again in two years’ time. Make a note of 4 to 8 May 2026 now. We look forward to another fruitful exchange and innovative impulses.