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Impressions From the "Other" Embedded Conference
by Paul G Schreier, Contributing Editor

As soon as I heard about the German version, I knew it would be interesting to compare two upcoming shows, which share the same theme focus: embedded systems. However, one follows the other by only three weeks, and almost half-way around the world. Specifically, I've just returned from attending Embedded Systems 2002 (www.embedded-systems-messe.de), which took place from the 19th to the 21st of this month in Nürnberg, Germany (and thus hereafter I'll refer to as ESNbg). Most readers of this column, though, are likely more familiar with the Embedded Systems Conference San Francisco 2002 (www.esconline.com), which takes place March 12 to 16 (and hereafter I'll refer to as ESSF).

As you'd expect, the two shows share many similarities, but there are some subtle differences. Start with the hours of operation. I don't know if it's because American engineers and marketing people (more likely the case) like to party late into the night and have trouble getting up early, or whether traffic congestion is an issue, but ESSF has very limited morning hours. The exhibition starts the first day at 10am, another at 11am, and one day it doesn't even open until 3pm; on the other hand, it does offer evening hours for those engineers who aren't already tired enough at the end of the day. In contrast, ESNbg keeps standard business hours, 9-5, all three days.

I suspect that part of what makes those hours possible is accessibility. Indeed, Nürnberg is an excellent city for a trade show. The convention center is only 10 minutes by subway from the city center. Also, another subway line leads directly to the local airport, which isn't far away to begin with, maybe 5 miles from downtown. For those driving, there are literally more than 10,000 parking spaces at the expo center itself. The convention facilities are first rate; you can actually get a decent meal at the on-site restaurants, which is good because there's nothing else within walking distance. Furthermore, Nürnberg's old town - completely bombed out during WWII - has been largely restored to its old-world charm, with more beer cellars and small restaurants than you could possibly visit in years of attending trade shows there. So it's a really neat place to visit if you've got a free hour or two.

But let's get back to business. In some ways, you might think of this year's ESNbg as a preview of ESSF, but for the most part that's not the case. Most big companies are holding their major announcements for ESSF. A few companies, generally those with stronger European roots, made initial product announcements at ESNbg and plan to issue the same press releases in the US. In general, though, that's not a good practice because I can tell you from too many years of experience that we editors are reluctant to pick up releases that have already been made public, even at an overseas show, even more so than ever because of the speed at which news can travel and that anyone can read a web publication put together halfway across the globe.

Also, there's a group of companies that decided to exhibit in Germany but don't plan to participate in the US. Part of the equation is resources, both time and money. For a Very Big Company that's no problem, but most smaller to mid-sized operations are watching their marketing dollars and Euros very closely right now. The general consensus is that the attendees at the German show are more numerous and better qualified.

I was, indeed, surprised at the attendance. The first day started off slow, which is what you expect at any trade show. The second day was crowded - you couldn't get from Booth A to Booth B in a hurry without impolitely jostling a few people. Then there was the final day, during whose closing hours most exhibitors at virtually any trade show generally consider a waste of time (and hence, I assume, why ESSF closes on the last day at 3 PM). Surprisingly, though, at ESNbg there was still a quite acceptable number of visitors in the aisles at 3 PM.

There's also a difference in product slants between the two shows. First, though, let me say there was no "headline" announcement or trend, no revolutionary new product family or standard, nothing that had just everyone buzzing. What I did notice, though, was a very heavy emphasis on technologies for automotive applications, and there were even a few cars in various booths with prototypes of in-vehicle control/navigation/entertainment systems. Even more heavily represented were industrial networks; it seemed that every other booth was pushing industrial networking cards of some sort. I was also amazed at the number of realtime operating systems and kernels still on the market after all these years. I'm beginning to think that selling an RTOS or kernel is a real cottage industry in Germany. And because this is a DSP page, I feel obligated to say that while DSP was represented as an option for embedded systems, it wasn't given extremely heavy play.

What other differences did I notice? Well, there didn't seem to be as many after-hours parties compared to past conferences I've attended, and many of those took place at the booths, which in turn means the hosts couldn't invite large crowds. One evening, the company men Mikro Elektronik (with its headquarters just across town on the north side of Nürnberg) had a booth bash to celebrate its 20th birthday. QNX and some associated companies, in contrast, took a few friends out for drinks at an old beer cellar in the old town.

In speaking with the exhibitors, I detected a schizophrenic situation. In the local press all you see are "gloom-and-doom" stories about companies going bankrupt, unemployment rising, problems with balancing federal and state budgets and the like. On the other hand, almost all the exhibitors I spoke with were either mildly optimistic if not very enthusiastic about the coming year. Part of that translates to the number of exhibitors at the show, which increased by roughly 50 to a total of 436. They did take up a bit less total space that the previous year, but the two halls they used in the massive Nürnberg Messe Zentrum gave them roughly 22,500 square meters of floor space. (I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to compare this to the space for ESSF at the Moscone Center.) Unfortunately, the show management didn't publish attendance figures during the event itself so I can't make any statements along those lines.

Yes, it's interesting to compare these two embedded shows, which fall so closely together. And while dates for the German show next year have been announced, again for Nürnberg (18-20 Feb), those dates might be moved and the dynamics between the two shows could change. The reason is because if there was one newsy item that had people wondering, if not buzzing, was that ESNbg is about to change hands: as of March 1, Embedded Systems Messe GmbH is becoming a fully owned subsidiary of Hüthig GmbH, a technical publishing house located outside of Munich. You might know of them because one of that company's print products is elektronik industrie magazine. Interestingly, a technical conference runs parallel to this exhibition at the same facility, and that conference will continue to remain in the hands of a competing German technical publishing company, WEKA Verlag, which publishes the very popular weekly electronics newspaper Markt&Technik as well as highly respected titles including Elektronik, Design&Elektronik and Computer&Automation. And how long before the Americans once again try to crack the European market with an embedded show?

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