Visit Bau – The Easy Way

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A visit to BAU 2009, Europe´s most important trade fair for architecture, building materials and systems, needs careful planning. There´s the travel to be organised, the hotel to be booked and information gathered about the exhibitors. All of this is easily achieved thanks to the package of services offered by BAU to its trade visitors, ensuring that the planners, designers and building professionals coming to Munich in January will have a stress-free visit and benefit as much as possible from BAU. BAU 2009 takes place from 12 to 17 January 2009 at the New Munich Trade Fair Centre.

Buy your ticket online – and save time and money
Anyone wanting to save time and money will be interested in buying their ticket to BAU online, at www.bau-muenchen.com. Tickets bought online cost €21 instead of €28 if bought upon arrival (a 2-day ticket costs €30 as compared to €38; full pass: €44 instead of €53). A ticket bought in advance saves time queuing at the fair. When ordering online, the prospective visitor is sent a ticket voucher by e-mail, which s/he then prints out and brings to the fair, where s/he exchanges it quickly and easily for an actual entry ticket to the fair. All tickets entitle holders (and holders of the ticket voucher) to travel free of charge to and from the fair on Munich´s local public transport system (U-Bahn and S-Bahn).

Getting to the fair: attractive rail-travel packages
Whether you come by car, train or plane, the New Munich Trade Fair Centre is easy to reach via all forms of transport, and Munich itself of course boasts a central position in the heart of Europe.

Within the city area and on the motorways, car drivers simply follow the computer-controlled signs to reach BAU and the nearest available parking spaces. The car parks on the open-air site adjacent to the centre and the multi-storey car park at the West Entrance (which alone has a capacity for 5, 000 cars), open two hours before the fair starts and close two hours after it finishes at the end of each day. Visitors can refer to a route planner on the fair´s website, under the 'Travel' section. Also at the site are the target addresses for entry into the various navigation systems.

For rail travellers BAU and its partner Servicebroker is offering attractive travel packages. From as little as €69 BAU visitors can get a rail ticket to travel to BAU – the offer includes return travel and is valid from all German railway stations that are within 350 kilometres of Munich. From stations further away the prices start at €119. At www.bau-muenchen.com, in the 'Travel' section, there are travel offers including accommodation, and special rates for trainees, students and schoolchildren. Tickets can be ordered by phone on the booking hotline: 01805-311153, quoting BAU 2009. These offers remain open only as long as the limited ticket supplies last.

Those arriving at Munich´s central station should take the underground (U-Bahn, line U2) to the exhibition centre. The journey to either of the two stations which serve the exhibition centre – 'Messestadt West' or 'Messestadt Ost' – takes about 20 minutes. In the morning and in the afternoon until after the close of the fair each day the underground trains run every five minutes. Exhibitor passes and entry tickets for BAU are valid as tickets to travel free on the local public transport system, which of course includes the underground. This means that visitors who have bought their ticket in advance can already take advantage of this offer on the first day, as their ticket voucher is counted as a ticket for the purposes of local public transport.

Air travellers can use the airport shuttle bus to travel from the airport to the fair. The buses travel every 30 minutes, and the stops are in front of Terminal 1 (Exit A and the central area) and Terminal 2 at Munich Airport. A ticket for a return journey to the exhibition centre costs €12. At the exhibition centre, the shuttle buses stop at the North and West Entrances. Journey time: max. 45 minutes.

Accommodation: Offers in all categories
BAU is also providing its participants with assistance in booking their accommodation in Munich. The information is contained in the 'Your stay in Munich' section at the fair´s website. Here a number of partners are listed (Tradefairs, Servicebroker, Bavaria Touristik, Statthotel, Check-in) who offer accommodation of all kinds – from private homes to luxury hotels. Bookings can also be made online. For rooms in all categories the same rule applies – if you book early, you have the best choice and can benefit from more favourable conditions.

Support with visa applications and travel arrangements
BAU is of course a top international event, attracting visitors from around 145 countries worldwide. Over 36,000 trade visitors from abroad came to the last BAU, for example. To help visitors from non-EU countries in their applications for visas, a special visa service has been set up on the BAU website, under both the 'For exhibitors' and 'For visitors' sections. Here participants will find details of which documents are needed for visa applications and they can also apply here for a visa invitation letter. Links are also set up here to the website of the Foreign Office and to the foreign representatives of Messe München International. The latter can give information on other questions concerning visa applications and provide support in putting together travel packages and organising group travel. Messe München International has a worldwide network comprising six subsidiaries outside Germany and 66 foreign representatives who serve 89 countries.

Exhibitor database – Searching for companies at the click of a mouse
Searching for exhibitors is a simple matter thanks to the database of all the companies represented at BAU. Just a few mouse clicks and the required information is displayed on the screen. The database can be searched according to the criteria of company name, hall, country or postcode. It´s also easy to search according to product type, materials, techniques and systems, thanks to the product and services list. Using the 'Boothfinder' it´s possible to find in a matter of seconds the stand and hall number of the exhibitor in question. All the firms registered as exhibitors for the fair are listed in an Excel file, available for download from the 'Exhibitor database' section at www.bau-muenchen.com.

Tours of the fair
In cooperation with a number of publishing houses, BAU is offering a range of tours of the fair, targeted to specific groups such as architects, the skilled trades and representatives of the housing industry. The guided tours visit the stands of selected exhibitors who will be presenting their products and system innovations and explaining their benefits to the target group in question. The tours last two to three hours and registration is required. The number of participants is limited. Further information is available at www.bau-muenchen.com, in the section 'Supporting programme/Tours'.
BAU 2009

Over 1,800 exhibitors from 40 countries and over 200,000 visitors from 140 countries are expected to take part in the fair. BAU presents architecture, systems and materials for industrial, commercial and residential building, and for interiors. Market leaders in the sector come together at this unique platform, which is organised every two years. It is the most important industry event in the European building and construction sector. The range of building materials on display at the fair is divided into product and theme sections. A high-calibre accompanying programme featuring many attractive events rounds off this sector presentation.

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