GaLaBau 2008: The Green Trend Fair in Top Form

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For over 20 years the green sector has been coming together in Nuremberg at two-year intervals. At the leading European trade for ecological construction and landscaping, innovations will be presented and trends implemented. With 982 exhibitors (2006: 904), GaLaBau 2008, from 17th to 20th September, will open with its best set of figures so far. The green trade fair is expanding to over 100,000 m2 (2006: 95,000 m2) and for the first time will fill eleven exhibition halls. But not only in the halls, in the numerous supporting trade events too the total of around 53,000 expected trade visitors can engage in further specialist training and discuss with experts where the trend in ecological construction and landscaping is going. With the two specialist segments – German Golf Course Conference (Deutsche Golfplatztage) and PLAYGROUND – the golf course and playground sectors are receiving a new trade fair home at GaLaBau.

"The record participation by the 982 exhibitors guarantees a specialist range which is more attractive and comprehensive than ever before", emphasizes Walter Hufnagel, Member of the Management Board, NürnbergMesse. "The encouraging increase of around 8% on the exhibitors' side is due to growth in all segments, but also especially to the expansion of GaLaBau to include the two new specialist segments: German Golf Course Conference and PLAYGROUND, with the "Multi-generation playgrounds" Special Show.

The complete specialist range for design, construction and maintenance
GaLaBau is the trade fair with the most comprehensive specialist range in Europe covering the planning, construction and maintenance of urban, green and open spaces. Around 50 percent of the exhibitors come from the core segments of construction and maintenance machinery and equipment, then a further quarter from the construction materials, components, plants, supply and disposal as well as environmental protection sectors.

The last 25% are accounted for by special facilities such as playground equipment, urban furnishing and the golf course construction and maintenance sector. Particularly popular with the exhibitors and visitors alike are the spacious action spots. Once again this year the demonstrations featuring machinery and equipment from the urban spaces maintenance sector will be shown on the "Urban spaces maintenance action spot" at the SilberseePark. The "Earthmoving Action Spot" is located in the open grounds on the same level as Hall 4A.

Diverse support programme catering for every interest
GaLaBau is not only a comprehensive product show – through its diverse supporting programme, organized by the honorary sponsors of GaLaBau, the Federal Association of Horticulture, Landscaping + Sports Facilities Construction (Bundesverband Garten-, Landschafts- und Sportplatzbau e. V. - BGL), it also always picks up the latest developments and trends. In this context, the ELCA Trend Award "Ecological Construction and Landscaping" will be awarded once again in 2008. With the presentation of this International Trend Award, the ELCA (European Landscape Contractors Association) and BGL are together seeking to promote the interdisciplinary cooperation between building owners, landscape architects and landscape gardeners.

This year the award is going to France. Another integral component of the trade fair event is the Landscape Gardeners' Cup. In the nationwide vocational competition, on 18th and 19th September for the first time, the best landscape gardener trainees from the federal states will compete against each other in Hall 2, with the aim of really putting their specialist skills to the test and deciding the "German Champion Team". In addition, the support programme at GaLaBau 2008 offers interested trade visitors a whole range of specialist, trade events connected with ecological construction and landscaping. The spectrum of the specialist conferences covers numerous themes ranging from "Private Swimming Ponds" up to questions on "Shrubs in Public Areas". This year the focus will particularly be on the theme of "Gardens for the Elderly". On the Saturday of the fair events will be rounded off by the popular GaLaBau excursion.

"As the honorary sponsor of Europe's largest and most comprehensive trade fair for the design, construction and maintenance of urban green and open spaces, we are delighted that the GaLaBau family with its two special segments, German Golf Course Conference and PLAYGROUND, has expanded to include new additions, and that on top of this we can also once again offer the trade visitors an attractive specialist and supporting programme", said an enthusiastic Hanns-Jürgen Redeker, President of the BGL, summing up the diverse activities. "Public clients, planners, landscape gardeners as well as landscape and high-rise building architects are provided with a whole range of ideas and inspiration on the theme of ecological construction & landscaping."

Positive trend in the horticulture and landscape gardening sector
The horticulture and landscape gardening sector is doing well: growth of
5.45 percent to a total of 14,070 horticulture and landscape gardening companies was registered for 2007. In Germany, the sector's companies with their total of 87,165 employees achieved total turnover of 4.77 billion Euro. Compared to 2006 (4.35 million Euro), this represents an increase of 9.71 percent. In terms of the client structure, at 47 percent, the private garden sector incidentally accounts for the largest market share – with increasing potential! Thanks to the mild 2007/2008 winter, the BGL assumes that the companies will be able to continue the positive trend this year. As far as the public clients were concerned, the situation improved from 18.58 percent in 2006 to 20.67 percent in 2007. A total of 76 percent of orders related to the new creation of green spaces – 1% less compared to the previous year. The share of existing facilities being maintained increased by 1% last year to 20 percent of orders compared to 2006 (19 percent).

The green sector in Europe
The area of responsibilities and tasks facing the horticulture and landscape gardening companies is extremely diverse. Today it is no longer solely landscape gardening work, such as the creation and care of domestic gardens, private and public green facilities, which is the focal point, but also leisure facilities and sports facilities construction, rooftop and facade greenery, greenery for backyards, interior greenery, the creation of traffic-calmed zones, the landscape-orientated networking of road and transport routes as well as the re-naturalization of stream courses, which are becoming increasingly significant for the companies involved in the European horticulture, landscape gardening and sports facilities construction sector.

In Europe the industry employs well over 350,000 personnel, with a rising tendency. Most of the 74,000 small and medium-sized horticulture landscape gardening companies employ less than 50 persons per company. The share of trainees making up the total workforce is on average eight percent.

Do you still have any questions? – www.ask-GaLaBau.de
Good preparation is the be all and end all for every trade fair visit. It saves a lot of running around and is kind on your nerves and budget. This involves already knowing in the run-up to the event, which exhibitors of the 982 companies are presenting which new products and innovations. On the ask-GaLaBau platform the new products and innovations at the trade fair will be shown and constantly updated – in a clear overview and time-saving approach. In addition, the online presentations from the companies contain product and service descriptions, company profiles, product photos with zoom view as well as a link to the exhibitor's homepage. With an easy-to-use and clearly-structured overview, searching and filter functions make it easy to process the informa

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