Who you meet
Engineers, production and maintenance managers, purchasing teams and integrators. Conversations are technical and long: a visitor comes with a problem on a line and wants to know if you can solve it.
Industry
Hannover Messe
Hannover Messe is the industrial technology fair held every spring, usually in April, on the Hannover Exhibition Grounds. Automation, energy, digital production and industrial supply companies meet engineers, plant managers and buyers from manufacturing.
Apr5–82027
Next edition
5 – 8 April 2027
Hanover, Germany
Prepare lead capture for Hannover Messe
Free account · Your first two events are on us
Exhibiting as a team? See the Team offerPhoto: Joshua Kettle / Unsplash
Source · checked on 26 October 2026
Next edition
5 – 8 April 2027
Venue
Hanover, GermanyMessegelände Hannover
Frequency
Every year · April
Organiser
Deutsche Messe AG
Official website
Dates come from the source shown and may change: confirm them on the official website before you book.
Hannover Messe in figures
110,000
visitors
Figures for the 2026 edition, as published by the organiser. Source
What makes capturing contacts hard here
The value of a lead is in the detail of the need, and that is exactly what a business card or a badge scan does not record. Two weeks later, nobody remembers which visitor had the retrofit project and which one was only curious.
How to prepare
Write the qualification questions with your engineers: application, volume, installed base, project timeline. Let the salesperson add a note and a temperature right after the conversation, in trade show mode, and route the hot leads to the right person before the fair is even over.
The exhibitor’s guide to Hannover Messe
The industrial technology fair since 1947
Hannover Messe began in 1947 as an export fair, set up in a factory building in Laatzen, south of Hanover, to help restart West German industry after the war. It took its current name in 1961 and is now the reference fair for industrial technology: automation, motion and drives, digital factory, energy for industry, hydrogen, and research and development. Deutsche Messe organises it every spring on the Hanover fairground, one of the largest in the world.
Each year has a partner country that takes a prominent place in the halls and the conference programme. Visitors are mostly engineers, plant managers, buyers and decision makers from manufacturing, often with a precise project in mind. A conversation at Hannover Messe is usually technical, and the quality of the notes taken matters more than the number of contacts.
Planning your participation
The fairground is vast, so check which hall and which theme your stand belongs to, and tell your target accounts where to find you before the show. Industrial buyers plan their visit, and many will come only to the stands they put on their list.
Hanover is a mid-sized city and hotel rooms are scarce and expensive during the fair. The city has a long tradition of private rooms rented to fair visitors, and many exhibitors stay in nearby towns along the train lines. Prepare the campaign before you leave: a form with the questions your engineers need to qualify a project, and a personal link for each person on the stand.
On the floor
Technical visitors have specific questions. Ask what decides a project: the application, the volumes, the installed base and the timeline. In trade show mode, the salesperson ticks the answers, photographs the card or badge, and adds a note and a temperature right after the conversation. When an engineer joins the discussion, record it too: it tells the team who should call back.
Halls are big and network coverage can be uneven, especially in the busiest hours. Captures are saved on the phone and synced when the connection comes back, so nothing depends on the hall's Wi-Fi.
After the show
Industrial projects take time, and the first follow-up is rarely the decisive one. Send a short, technical message within the week with the document you promised, a data sheet or a reference, and propose a visit or a call with the engineer concerned. Sort the contacts by the timeline they gave you: a project for this quarter gets a call, a project for next year gets a regular follow-up.
Your countdown to Hannover Messe 2027
The dates that matter, worked back from the opening day.
- D-604 February
Shortlist who you want to meet
List the accounts and profiles you are going for. Your qualification questions follow from that list.
- D-306 March
Open your event campaign
One campaign for the show: its own register, your questions, your follow-up delay.
- D-1422 March
Print the QR poster
A5 for the counter, A4 for the wall, and NFC cards for the team if you use them.
- D-23 April
Brief the team
Each person gets their own link. Show them trade show mode and the visitor tablet.
- D-day5 April
Opening day
Every contact lands in one register, even when the hall Wi-Fi drops.
- D+38 April
The follow-up leaves
Your follow-up email goes out on its own, while the stand is still fresh in mind.
Three ways to capture contacts at Hannover Messe
They scan your card
A QR code on the stand or an NFC card in your hand: the contact fills in your form on their own phone, with your qualification questions.
Or you capture them
In trade show mode, photograph a business card or a badge, add a note and a temperature, and move on. It works with no signal.
Or they use the tablet
A visitor tablet on the counter takes the details of whoever is waiting while you are busy, and resets for the next person.
Exhibiting at Hannover Messe?
Set up your lead capture in minutes: a QR code for your stand, trade show mode on your phone, and the follow-up email ready to leave.
Getting there
Hannover Messe/Laatzen station is served by long-distance and regional trains during the fair.
From Hannover Airport, take the S-Bahn to the central station, then light rail line 8 to Messe/Nord.
Questions
Hannover Messe 2027 is announced from 5 to 8 April 2027, in Hanover, Germany. Dates come from the source shown and may change: confirm them on the official website before you book.
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