Steve Rogerson previews what we can look forward to at next month’s Embedded World show in Nuremberg.

Early in April, I will be making my annual pilgrimage to the Embedded World trade show in Nuremberg. This is one of those big events that prove how well they do exhibitions and conferences in Germany.

Just about everybody in the industry that matters will be there, showing their products, speaking at the conference or burning the shoe leather as they wander the aisles looking for the latest innovations, before enjoying a well-deserved German beer in the many bars and restaurants in Nuremberg’s city centre.

While the show took a little time, understandably, to recover from the pandemic, last year’s event was almost back to normal and Embedded World’s executive director Benedikt Weyerer, when I spoke to him this week, was confident this year would be even bigger and better.

“We are expecting a very big show,” he said. ‘We have 1100 exhibitors and the forecast is for the visitor numbers to be good. We are seeing a strong comeback after the pandemic.”

One of the big selling points of the event has always been its conference, the programme of which this year Benedikt described as “incredible”.

This time, the IoT M2M Council (IMC) is playing a bigger role in the conference with a series of panels on the Wednesday afternoon followed by a networking reception and then, on the Thursday, an expert panel (www.iotm2mcouncil.org/iot-library/event/imc-events/iot-week-embedded-world). Plus, of course, the exhibition will still have its dedicated M2M area, which may change its name at a future event.

‘The IMC for us is a very strong partner,” said Benedikt. “As to the M2M area, we started that a long-time ago and it is changing more and more into an IoT or communications area. But one secret of Embedded World is we don’t leap into every trend. Yet everyone knows M2M sounds old fashioned so we may change it in the future.”

A new feature this year will be a venture capital forum (www.embedded-world.de/en/conferences-programme/investors-forum) that will see investors having access to start-ups so they can explore the upcoming technologies and find some in need of their money.

“A lot of these will already invest in tech start-ups, but not necessarily in embedded,” said Benedikt. “It is a very specialist area, and a more solid technology-based business.”

This will be on the Wednesday afternoon, as will be Women for EW (www.embedded-world.de/en/conferences-programme/women4ew), a networking event for women in the embedded industry.

‘This is part of our mission to bring more female engineers into the embedded community,” said Benedikt.

To look at more general trends in the industry, Embedded World will, for the first time, be holding a c-level experts panel. This will be on the opening day and feature senior management from the likes of Infineon, Qualcomm and Intel subsidiary Altera.

Another difference this year is the date – mid-April. This was due to a combination of a massive woodworking event in March and the timing of the Easter holiday weekend, leaving April as the only realistic option, but Benedikt promised it would be back in mid-March next year.

Meanwhile, those ready for more of Embedded World can head to Austin in Texas from 8 to 10 October as the show dips its toes in American waters.

“The USA is a very important market,” said Benedikt. “Last year we had an Embedded World in Shanghai, and that was very successful. Asia and North America are important for us. Many are not able to travel to Europe so we are very excited to be in Austin.”

For those who do like to travel to Europe, I will see you in Nuremberg, maybe at the show or maybe at Hausbrauerei Altstadthof (hausbrauerei-altstadthof.de), a lovely combined brewery and bar in the old town.

Embedded World (www.embedded-world.de) will be held from 9 to 11 April 2024 in Nuremberg.