“Secure your business” – Security Essen more than lived up to this year’s motto as the leading trade fair for the civil security industry. Over four days, 383 exhibitors from 36 countries presented their protection and security innovations for companies, institutions and private buildings to the trade public, a third of whom came from abroad, at Messe Essen. “After a forced break due to the pandemic, the security industry was thrilled finally being able to meet and exchange ideas in person again,” said Oliver P. Kuhrt, CEO of Messe Essen.

“The exhibitor presentations were top-class and led to intense discussions. With Security Essen, we offer the industry a strong platform of its own in a strong market. After all, in Germany alone, the turnover of this sector of the economy has increased by 7.5% to more than 24 billion euros in the last year.”

Around 17.000 trade visitors – mainly from the industry, installation companies, retailers and municipalities – came to Messe Essen to find out about the latest products and solutions available and place orders. 77% of them were decision makers who make or arrange investments in their companies. They were very satisfied with their visit to the trade fair – particularly with the wide range of products and services covering all areas of civil security as well as the presence of many market leaders and industry giants. Telenot was one of them: “We have seen a clear trend towards higher quality visitors,” is how Telenot Managing Director Peter Wunderle sums up the trade fair.

“Whether they represented industry, corporate groups or retail chains, the security officers who came specifically to Security Essen were all highly prepared experts. There was great interest in both our professional access control technology and our new motion detector, which was released during the fair and is immediately available from stock. The numerous specialist installers particularly asked about our even larger range in the area of intrusion and fire alarm technology. Security Essen 2022 has surprised us, in a good way. We will definitely be back in 2024.”

In addition to Telenot and also Honeywell, many other companies have already booked their exhibition stand for the next Security Essen or expressed their interest in participating. “We are holding intense talks and are very confident that we will be INFORMATION able to welcome more well-known names again in 2024,” says Oliver P. Kuhrt, CEO of Messe Essen.

AI, digitisation and cloud solutions as trends at Security Essen 2022

Once again, Security Essen demonstrated it is the trendsetter of the security industry. It was clear that artificial intelligence (AI), digitisation and cloud solutions will significantly shape the future of civil security. Among other things, learning robot systems were on display, which carry out site surveillance tasks or provide information as visitor assistants. There was also strong interest in complete systems, where software, terminals, administration, analysis and maintenance services all come from a single source. As the progress in AI, Internet-of-Things technology and digitisation requires storage space for use and the amounts of data generated, cloud solutions were also in demand. Associated storage systems are also becoming increasingly important.

Start-ups had brought along plenty of new ideas for the security industry. At the joint stand sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Economics Affairs, they demonstrated intelligent robot systems designed as dogs, innovative solutions for recording working time and even storage containers for valuables hidden in inconspicuous furniture.

Security Essen has already set the course for the next trade fair in 2024. On the second day of the trade fair, CEO Kuhrt announced that civil protection and civil security would be a new focus for the trade fair in the future, in response to their perceived growing importance in light of the current events in politics, the economy and society.

A sought-after stage for national and international experts

The trade fair has underlined its position as the leading industry platform with its extensive programme. The Digital Networking Security Conference offered a high level of professional discussion on the topic of “networked security”. In the fire prevention forum, experts provided practical information on fire prevention and fire fighting. Trade visitors were able to get an idea of the product innovations of the exhibiting companies in the Security Experts Forum. Buyers from the United Nations had chosen the trade fair to inform about UN procurement and to establish contacts with exhibiting companies.

Bilateral exchange was the focus of the BeNeLux Day, which was organised together with the German-Dutch Chamber of Commerce (DNHK) and the Dutch Cluster Security Delta (HSD). Guests from the neighbour INFORMATION country Netherlands also made up by far the largest group of international trade visitors – followed by Belgium. Recruiting young talent was the focus of the 5th Training and Further Education Day, when Messe Essen and the Federal Association of the Security Industry BDSW invited hundreds of trainees, students and retrainees from the security industry. NRW’s Minister of the Interior Herbert Reul used his visit to the trade fair to present the “NRW Economic Protection Situation Report 2021/2022”.

Dr Christian Endreß, Managing Director of the Allianz für Sicherheit in der Wirtschaft West (ASW West e.V.), states: “For us at ASW, this year’s Security Essen was a complete success. A special highlight was Minister Reul presenting the latest situation report on economic protection during the fair. This has a high signal effect. In the future, the fair will focus on civil protection and civil defence and thus do justice to the changed threat situation. We wholeheartedly welcome this development and as an association we will actively support the project.”

Save the date: Security Essen 2024 opens from 17-20 September 2024

The high level of satisfaction among trade visitors and exhibiting companies is reflected in the trade fair surveys. Nine out of ten visitors would recommend Security Essen to others. Nine out of ten companies expect good post-fair business due to the positive course of the fair. Almost all exhibitors stated that they had reached their most important target groups. Already now, 89% of the visitors and 88% of the exhibiting companies stated that they would be present again at Security Essen 2024. The next Security Essen will take place from 17-20 September 2024 at Messe Essen.

Interested exhibitors can find the registration documents online at www.security-essen.de