In this photo, left to right, Patrick Ford, Business Development Corporation of the Northern Panhandle, Holly McGinness, WV European Office, Sven Gerzer, WV European Office, Gary Walton, PCDA; and Jordan Hantz, WV European Office Intern. The group gathers for a photo in the West Virginia Booth at Bright World of Metals trade fair in Dusseldorf.

Bright World of Metals is comprised of a quartet of technology trade fairs GIFA, METEC, THERMPROCESS and NEWCAST. In cooperation with the West Virginia Department of Commerce, the West Virginia Development Office, International Division and the West Virginia European Office, PCDA was able to participate in a the International Division’s pavilion at the largest general metalworking trade fair in Europe.

The trade fairs posted new records both in terms of exhibitors and visitors. Almost 2,000 exhibitors from throughout the world met with 79,000 visitors from 83 countries.
According to Messe Dusseldorf, the share of international visitors was up again over the previous events: Over 54% of visitors traveled to Dusseldorf from abroad, especially from India, Italy, France, Austria and the USA.

With these results the trade fairs impressively confirmed their standing as the leading trade fairs in their sectors. Thanks to the support of the WV Development Office and the European Office, a metals and metalworking brochure was prepared and printed for distribution at the trade show. The informative brochure highlighted many of the metals and metalworking firms in West Virginia and was extremely well received by show visitors.

The next metalworking trade show that again includes GIFA, METEC, THERMPROCESSS and NEWCAST will be presented jointly as technology trade fair quartet in summer 2015.