Heimtextil to expand its working relationship with AIT magazine

Hall 3.1 to be the focal point for the contract sector with ‘Let’s have a look’

Contract Creations website with interactive hall plan and articles of topical interest to the sector

Both exhibitors and visitors will benefit from a unique portfolio of products and a multifarious programme covering subjects of topical interest to the sector when the international trade fair for home and contract textiles opens its doors for the worldwide textile sector in Frankfurt from 13 to 16 January 2010. For example, the special-show area in Hall 3.1 will spotlight the rapidly expanding contract business and be the central meeting place for representatives of the hotel and restaurant, office, congress and conference centre, clinic, care and rehabilitation sectors.

The special events under the title ‘Let’s have a look’, which were held in Hall 3.1 at the last Heimtextil, will be expanded in 2010. Thus, in cooperation with AIT architecture magazine, Heimtextil has developed a concept that gives exhibitors from the classic contract sector the opportunity to make presentations in a high-grade architectural setting. This concept will be implemented within the framework of ‘Let’s have a look’ in Hall 3.1 (stand F40). The exhibitors of Hall 3.1 include renowned companies such as Backhausen and Tisca from Austria, Mira X from Switzer­land, ADO, Nya Nordiska and Rasch Textil from Germany, Bernard Reyn and Vescom from The Netherlands, Equipo d’rt from Spain and Erre Erre from Italy. Additionally, Korhani from Canada, a manufacturer of ecological carpets, will take part in Heimtextil for the first time. “The special show area in Hall 3.1 will attract the right target group for the high-grade segment of Heimtextil for floor, wall, window and decorative fabrics. The result will be a meeting place revolving around innovative product solutions, workshops, lectures and guided tours for architects”, explains Olaf Schmidt, Vice President, Textile Fairs, Messe Frankfurt.

Hall 3.1 to be the focal point for the contact sector with ‘Let’s have a look’

The six winners of the ‘Tapetenwechsel’ (Change of Scenery) competition, organised by AIT in conjunction with the German Wallpaper Institute, will be shown in an unusual exhibition as part of the ‘Let’s have a look’ special show. The aim of the competition is to raise awareness of wallpaper as an important interior-design element and to increase the potential of this traditional material. More than 180 entries from architects and interior architects from Germany, Austria and Switzerland were discussed and evaluated in a multi-stage judging process. The winning entries will be on show in a special area of Hall 3.1 (stand F40) throughout the fair.

The special show by the Austrian textile industry, ‘Textil © Austria since 1672’ (stands A72 and A73) gives an impressive overview of the innovative, high-quality products made in Austria. “Particularly in economically challenging times, it is all the more important not to lean back and hope that things will improve. On the contrary, companies should deliberately show the flag and arouse customer interest with in­nova­tive products”, says Reinhard Backhausen, President of the Associa­tion of the Austrian Textile Industry (Fachverband der Textil­industrie Österreichs). “Only those companies that continuously strive for improvements and changes – and then publicise them – will be suc­cessful in the long run. Accordingly, for our exhibition, we sought the ideal platform for making a dynamic presentation and decided on Heimtextil, the most important international trade fair for our sector,” adds Backhausen.

Material ConneXion Cologne, leading international scout for in­novative materials and technologies, will hold materials workshops on ‘Organic Innovations’ and ‘Smart Textiles’ on the Wednesday and Friday of the fair. These workshops are aimed primarily at product developers, designers and marketing experts who, together with materials experts, will have the chance to find new concepts for their own product-development activities.

On the Thursday of the fair, the German Hotel Association (Hotel­verband Deutschland – IHA) will turn the spotlight on the growing target group of women as hotel guests under the title ‘Hotel Rooms for Women’. The keynote speaker will be design expert Professor Uta Brandes of the International School of Design, Cologne. More­over, the IHA has conducted a poll on this subject and the results will be published during the event. Other lecture topics include best-practice examples, e.g., the realisation of design concepts especially for female guests.

Also on the Thursday, AIT will hold guided tours for architects and interior architects to introduce them to innovative products by re­nowned manufacturers. In the afternoon, a new panel discussion on ornaments will be held within the framework of the AIT Dialogue Series at Heimtextil. In 2010, the focus will be on ‘3-D ornaments’, i.e., the expansion of ornaments into the room – into the third dimension – which is a current architectural phenomenon. Ornaments are no longer building decorations but also create rooms. Renowned architects, designers, artists and theoreticians will present and discuss their positions.

The day will be rounded off by the presentation of the 7th Architec­ture, Textile and Contract Innovation Award. For the first time in 2010, the traditional procedure of the award will be supple­mented by innovative trend scouting. On the first day of the fair, around 25 architects will visit all relevant exhibition halls and search for new generations of innovative products from the contract-textiles, textile room-divider / sun-protection systems, wall coverings, wall­paper and furniture product groups, which are of particular interest to architects and interior architects. The 15 most-mentioned products will go forward into a second evaluation round and, on the Thursday, a second jury will decide on the winners of the trend scouting.

On Friday, 15 January 2010, Dr. Dietmar Danner, editor-in-chief and publisher of AIT, will give three lectures on ‘Multipliers and decision makers: architects as a target group in the contract business’ in the Forum (Room ‘Substanz’, level C). Dr. Danner will introduce the most important decision makers in the contract business – the architects – and answer questions such as the best way to approach architects, how do they reach their decisions and why are which products selected?

Contract Creations website with interactive hall plan and articles of topical interest to the sector
Heimtextil has been emphasising and drawing attention to the con­tract business for many years and, with Contract Creations, points the right way to the expanding market comprising the hotel and restaurant, office, congress and conference centre, clinic, care and rehabilitation sectors. With the www.contact-contract.com internet portal and, for example, the interactive hall plan, Heimtextil gives planners, hotel operators, interior designers, architects and other related professions the opportunity to find suppliers in the contact-furnishing field and to plan an efficient visit to the fair. Additionally, the website includes new practical reports from the world of Contract Creations including informative articles on ‘Later in life: accommoda­tion, furniture and textiles for senior citizens’ and ‘Green, greener New Orleans – Brad Pitt’s Construction Project’.

Background information on Messe Frankfurt:
Messe Frankfurt is Germany’s leading trade fair organiser, with 424 million euros in sales in 2009* and more than 1,500 employees worldwide. The Messe Frankfurt Group has a global network of 28 subsidiaries, five branch offices and 52 international Sales Partners, giving it a presence for its customers in more than 150 countries. Events “made by Messe Frankfurt” take place at more than 30 locations around the globe. In 2009*, Messe Frankfurt organised more than 90 trade fairs, of which more than half took place outside Germany.
Messe Frankfurt’s exhibition grounds, featuring 578,000 square metres, are currently home to ten exhibition halls and an adjacent Congress Center. The company is publicly owned, with the City of Frankfurt holding 60 percent and the State of Hesse 40 percent.
For more information, please visit our website at: www.messefrankfurt.com
* preliminary numbers (2009)

Contact:
Sandra Kreß
Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH
Press/PR/Internet
Ludwig-Erhard-Anlage 1
60327 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Telephone +49 69 75 75-57 11
Telefax +49 69 75 75-67 57
sandra.kress@messefrankfurt.com
www.messefrankfurt.com

This release was published on openPR.