As the South rises as a hotbed for manufacturing, A-town is beginning to represent automation and artificial intelligence on a global stage.
German trade show operator Messe Frankfurt will launch a new convention this fall in Atlanta to tackle the issues facing today’s advanced manufacturers. The Sept. 16-18 event at Georgia World Congress Center focuses on automation, AI and scaling smart technologies for mass production.
Most large American trade shows focused on factory efficiency are clustered in Chicago and Detroit, where assembly lines are embedded into the culture. But Constantin von Vieregge, Messe Frankfurt’s North American president and CEO, said Atlanta is the modern-day equivalent of those Midwest manufacturing hubs.
“Innovative new manufacturing technology is really drawn to the Southeast,” he said. “We see over 66,000 manufacturing companies here, which is not something to ignore ... and I think this trend is going to continue.”
Credit: Courtesy of Messe Frankfurt
Credit: Courtesy of Messe Frankfurt
The event, which is called the Smart Production Solutions automation and AI technology show, is an American iteration of an existing show Messe Frankfurt has held for years in Germany, Italy and China. Vieregge said his company, which has its North American headquarters in Vinings with 60 employees, is the third-largest trade show operator in the world.
He described the event as a place “where the nerd meets the other nerd” to solve complicated problems. Advanced manufacturing is all about optimizing sensors, minimizing errors and maximizing efficiency in a fast-changing technological landscape.
“People are expected to come with real-life problems, and then the companies that are there exhibiting are happy to rack their brains trying to solve the problem,” Vieregge said.
Credit: Ben Hendren
Credit: Ben Hendren
There will be more than 100 exhibitors, including Siemens Digital Industries, Amazon Web Services and Bright Machines. Keynote speeches will be held by Debra Phillips, president of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, and two Siemens executives, Chris Stevens and Annemarie Breu.
Vieregge is targeting 3,000-5,000 attendees in the show’s inaugural year.
Improving factory floor automation is about making more things with less space, a critical skill Germany has had to refine as a country with less area than the U.S.
“You don’t have the luxury of just building a new factory directly next to it,” Vieregge said. “The companies were forced to automate very early to optimize the manufacturing output.”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
The U.S. has more land, but he said he’s always impressed at how quickly American companies adopt and scale new technologies. He used AI and data centers as an example because only China has emerged as a global rival on those fronts.
Atlanta, which was only a regional data center market before the AI boom of 2022, has risen as the world’s second-largest data center market behind only Northern Virginia, according to real estate services firm CBRE. While furthering the South’s high-tech industries, the data center industry’s rapid ascent has prompted controversy over power usage and local impacts.
The Smart Production Solutions show will be produced by multiple Messe Frankfurt entities in conjunction with the Association for Manufacturing Technology. More information is available at https://sps-americas.us.messefrankfurt.com/usa/en.html.
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