May is set to be a strategic month for machine-tool companies and associated sectors keen to strengthen their participation in international markets.

As the number of foreign exhibitors at BIEMH increases, with 1022 manufacturers, importers and distributors from a total of 25 countries already signed up for the event, the campaign to attract visitors is also taking an international focus. Promotional actions have already reached out to over 67.000 industry specialists worldwide, with forthcoming trade missions scheduled for Turkey, Germany, Mexico, Colombia, China, India, Morocco and Algeria.

The effect of the event as a platform for globalising business will be strengthened this year with the incorporation of new, online applications and spaces to facilitate direct links between users, exhibitors and potential visitors, information sharing and discussion on various levels.

There are now less than four months to go before the 27th Spanish Machine-tool Biennial, scheduled for May 28-June 2 and considered one of Europe's leading trade fairs in its sector.

BIEMH commercial staff have begun to design the layout of the event, sticking to the sectoral distribution system used on previous occasions. For the moment the largest areas are those allocated to cutting and shaping machine-tools, though the other sectors (accessories and tools, electrical, electronic, hydraulic and pneumatic equipment, metrology, control, CAD/CAM/CAE and other machinery and equipment) have also achieved significant levels of participation.

Germany and Italy are the benchmark countries in the world's machine-tool industry, and they will once again be major participants in the BIEMH. The event will also feature firms from Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, South Korea, Denmark, Slovenia, the USA, Finland, France, the Netherlands, India, Israel, Japan, Poland, Portugal, the UK, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and Turkey. Commercial promotion efforts are ongoing, and further markets will be incorporated shortly.

The full list of exhibitors is updated weekly and can be viewed on the official website (www.biemh.com). The list is searchable by company name, country, province and sector and subsector, product and location are soon to be added as further search criteria.

After trips to Brazil, Poland and the Czech Republic late last year, the first few months of 2012 will see the organisers of the BIEMH completing a large-scale international campaign which will take them to Turkey, Germany, Mexico, Colombia, Morocco, Algeria, China and India. The visits to these last two countries are scheduled to coincide with a trade mission from the Basque Government, which will bring together a large number of representatives of business and public institutions.

Two presentations have also been scheduled in the Indian cities of Pune and New Delhi with the aid of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, MAHRATTA, and the Higher Council of Chambers of Commerce, FICCI. The objective is to give distributors, importers, end users and representatives of specialist publications an in-depth presentation of the event and set up promotional actions. The programme for delegations of purchasers, one of the mainstays of the visitors' campaign, is also being deployed in these markets, which exhibitors have highlighted as strategic. With the aid of the SPRI (Organisation for the Promotion and Restructuring of Industry) network of offices, answerable to the Basque Government, the trade offices of ICEX (Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade) and direct representatives of the Bilbao Exhibition Centre abroad, proposals are currently being coordinated in 45 countries.

Months before its opening, BIEMH 2012 has already become a platform open to the participation of industry specialists thanks to its presence on specific social networks, to the system for arranging meetings online which was enabled on the website at the beginning of this month and to the new smartphone app designed to allow users to access and share a wide range of contents.

With the new smartphone application users can check the latest news. It features a video channel, a photo gallery and a calendar of events, and enables exhibitors to be located by geolocation. It can also be integrated into social networks to spread information and interact with other users there.

A BIEMH discussion group has been set up on Linkedin to discuss the event itself and the sector that represents, and the latest news items are posted on Twitter as a way of reaching out quickly and immediately to sectoral associations, firms, institutions and other media, which make up most of the group’s followers.

The programme for arranging meetings has been operational on the website since the beginning of this month. It enables accredited visitors to set up appointments directly with exhibitors of their choice and thus make the most of their time at the event. At other events this system has proved highly successful: at the recent Industry and Technology Summit it handled more than 500 meetings.

February 2012, Communication Department