GERMANY - While opening day is still about a year away, exhibition space at the world's leading trade fair for machinery, plant and tools for the woodworking and timber processing industry is already more than 80 percent booked.

To put that in perspective: LIGNA 2017 featured 1,520 exhibitors and occupied 130,000 square meters (1,400,000 sq. ft.) of display space.

The next LIGNA is being staged from 27 to 31 May 2019, and its organizers are Deutsche Messe and the German Woodworking Machinery Manufacturers' Association (VDMA Holzbearbeitungsmaschinen).

“I'm pleased to say we're getting lots of first-time exhibitors, not to mention plenty of repeat exhibitors, many of whom are staging bigger displays this time around,” commented Christian Pfeiffer, Deutsche Messe's Global Director LIGNA& Woodworking Events. “What's more, the outstanding response exhibitors are showing for the event serves as confirmation that we made the right move in 2017, at which time when we completely revamped the site, the layout of display categories and thus the locations of virtually every single exhibitor,” he added. “Next year, the majority of the exhibitors will be retaining the locations they had in 2017 following the big change. T

he Surface Technology display launched in 2017 will be home to a number of first-time exhibitors in 2019. Companies from around the world are so eager to exhibit at LIGNA because they know it is the very best option when it comes to showcasing new products, presenting full-fledged plant and machinery in action, as well as for networking and comparing notes with industry peers.”