By Deborah Jackson, editor National Liquor News and Beer & Brewer
Drinktec, the world’s leading trade show for the beverage and liquid food industry, will once again be held in Munich this year and will have an increased focus on craft beer.
Held every four years, Drinktec will take place from 11-15 September 2017 (conveniently ending the day before Oktoberfest kicks-off) at the Messe München exhibition centre in Munich, Germany.
This year’s show expects to attract 1,600 exhibitors and 70,000 visitors from around the world over the five days.
With the brewing industry being more varied than ever before this year’s show will include more beer-specific exhibitors along with events targeted at both large and small brewers.
L-R Veera Akraputtiporn, Georg Moller, Richard Clemens, Marius Mehner
The new ‘place2beer’ in Hall B1 is the successor to the Brewer Meeting Spot and will be the place-to-go for brewers, specialised beer lovers and everyone that has anything to do with beer.
In addition to sharing information and socialising, there will also be a lot of technical input: Successful brewers from around the world will share their success stories and showcase their beers. Start-ups, including young craft brewers with innovative ideas, will present to an international audience for the first time. In addition, talks and panel discussions will deal with topics including food and beer, women and beer, and more.
Exhibitors at the place2beer hall will demonstrate all areas from the manufacture, filling and packaging of beverages right through to marketing, raw materials, ingredients and recipes, as well as logistics solutions.
For the first time this year Drinktec has partnered with Simei, the largest trade fair for winery and bottling machinery, and as such is set to be the biggest event in its 65-year history with 150,000sqm of exhibitor space.
The Drinktec 2017 app is a great way for visitors to search for exhibitors and plan their trip. This app highlights products and points of interest and provides an overview of the supporting program, detailed information on individual events, as well as an interactive hall plan.
Needless to say, Drinktec 2017 is going to be huge, and if you factor in Oktoberfest beginning the next day, it would be best to start planning your trip now.