In a year when most conferences and trade shows had to cope with 10 to 30 percent drops in attendance, the organizers of the REW Istanbul event say they continued to enjoy growth and momentum in 2009.
Organized and coordinated by IFO Istanbul Exhibition Services, the June 18-21 5th
International Recycling, Environmental Technologies and Waste Management Exhibition
(REW Istanbul) attracted 197 companies from 18 countries as exhibitors while attendance for the event surpassed 8,350.
Project Manager Namik Sarigöl says the event has become an international crossroads for manufacturers and scrap traders from Europe and North America to meet up and conduct business with current and prospective customers from Turkey and surrounding regions.
“Istanbul is the real center of a large market region that brings together Turkey with the Middle East and the Balkan nations as well as nations in North Africa and Central Asia,” says Sarigöl.
The event’s exhibit area provided a forum for international participation, says Sarigöl, including pavilions for Bavaria and the Netherlands. For 2010, the German state or Land of Hesse has also signed up to stage a pavilion.
Sarigöl says European equipment manufacturers and traders have been quick to identify the opportunities presented by the REW Istanbul event. “Many people in the Western market cannot get direct contact with Middle East companies,” he comments. “So if, say, a middle-sized Belgian company is trying to sell a baler or shipments of scrap to the Middle East, they may well have contacts in the Turkish market, so that they can have access to the Middle East through that. That is why they need to come to REW Istanbul and see not only the Turkish market, but also the access a contact in the Turkish market can provide to the Middle East and other adjacent regions.”
REW Istanbul is likely to attract more exhibitors and attendees in 2010, says Sarigöl, in part because the event has been expanding its focus to include waste-to-energy and wastewater markets.
Sectors covered by the event are listed as environmental technologies, recycling facilities, recycling machinery and equipment, waste storage and logistics, handling and shipping, waste elimination systems and equipment, waste water treatment facilities, purification of sludge, urban cleaning equipment, and measurement/analysis devices and laboratories.
Sarigöl says he has been pleased by the growing European presence at the event and says that North American equipment manufacturers and traders should become more familiar with REW Istanbul in 2010 or they risk losing out on opportunities. “This is the place they can find the contacts they need—people interested in their machinery and in their scrap.”
The recycling equipment market is still growing in Turkey, says Sarigöl, as companies there move away from labor-intensive dismantling. “Companies that are manufacturing something to be used in those processes will benefit by connecting with the Turkish market at REW Istanbul 2010.” The 2010 event takes place June 10-13.
Exhibitors can find out more and can send in an application for booth space through the event’s Web site at http://www.rewistanbul.com/index_en.php?page=katilimTalepFormu .