LASER World of PHOTONICS 2011 – Will focus on applications

Four fully occupied exhibition halls and the Munich International Congress Center will become the international meeting-point for optical technologies from May 23 to 26, 2011. The LASER World of PHOTONICS trade fair will also celebrate its 20th anniversary next year. This event was held for the first time in 1973. In 2009 it attracted 1,034 exhibitors and 25,365 visitors. The number of exhibitors and visitors from outside Germany has risen continuously and now stands at 57 per cent for exhibitors and 51 per cent for visitors.

Experts from science and industry will present current developments and applications. They will show what new areas the key technology is developing in all sectors of industry and how it can create potential for companies to offer new solutions, work more efficiently or attain even higher quality.

The world’s leading trade fair for lasers and photonics and the World of Photonics Congress cover the entire spectrum and every application area of optical technologies, and are therefore unique. Current applications, innovations and future topics will again play a key role.

Focus topics – on the pulse of the times
Ever since the first event was staged back in 1973, the trade fair has featured lasers and laser systems for manufacturing in a separate exhibition area. Over the course of time, this area has become increasingly more important and has developed into the world’s leading platform for this segment. This is also clearly demonstrated by the industries in which visitors work. They range from automobile construction, mechanical engineering, toolmaking, job order production and the aerospace industry through to photovoltaics, electronics and microproduction.

The topics in green photonics will include energy and the environment, photovoltaics, lighting, energy efficiency and climate protection. Exhibitors will show here how optical technologies make a substantial contribution towards efficient production and energy conservation, where they are used for renewable energies and how they can optimize measuring and test technology.
The third focus topic will be biophotonics and life sciences. A large number of innovations in medicine and life sciences would be impossible without optical technologies. During the trade fair research institutes and companies will present the new applications, methods and processes in biophotonics. The Biophotonics Forum and the “European Conferences on Biomedical Optics“ (ECBO) will also show current achievements and future possibilities.

Applications in the area of security and defense will be examined for the first time at the trade fair as a separate topic. Exhibitors here will present laser applications from aerospace, for example displays for civil aviation, stabilization systems and defense systems.

World of Photonics Congress – Bridge between research and industry
The six conferences being held under the umbrella of the World of Photonics Congress are being organized and staged, as in previous years, by renowned international organizations. As the most important international congress in Europe for photonics, the World of Photonics Congress is a networking and knowledge forum for the transfer of know-how between science and industry.

The Congress program will include a new event, i.e. the “Optofluidics” Conference, which is being organized by the European Optical Society (EOS). The Optical Metrology Conference has included an additional subconference on the topic of videometrics in its program and the ECBO will look in 2011 at clinically oriented topics in addition to its traditional program contents.

With the series of application panels and its practical talks in the exhibition halls, the Congress will create a link between research and industry, so that questions are turned into solutions and specific projects.

Trade fair and Congress – Homebase of the photonics industry
LASER World of PHOTONICS is regarded as the homebase of the photonics industry. According to a survey conducted by tns Infratest, 98 per cent of exhibitors and 97 per cent of visitors at the last event are intending to come back again in 2011. They were extremely satisfied with the trade fair and identify with it. In addition to business objectives, the cultivation of contacts in the industry plays a very important role for all participants.

Claudia Sixl, Project Group Leader for LASER World of PHOTONICS at Messe München, explains the special nature of this event: “Due to the close connection between industry and research at an international level and the fact that LASER World of PHOTONICS covers the entire spectrum of optical technologies from components and systems through to application areas, we offer unique advantages. These advantages have become indispensable in a tough competitive environment with which our customers are now faced. This fact is also recognized by all the leading names in the industry through their attendance at LASER World of PHOTONICS.”