K-time!

For at least half a year now, all hotels within a one-hour drive of Düsseldorf have been fully booked, LinkedIn is full of exhibitor announcements or “meet & greet” invitations, and the standard question from my connections (and myself) is: are you going to the K?

The Düsseldorf Plastics Fair is so well-known that simply mentioning its first letter (of german "Kunststoffe") is enough. And rightly so, as it is the largest plastics trade fair in the world, with 12 large halls and 6 smaller ones, more than 3,200 exhibitors, and in 2022 (post covid), some 177,000 visitors (expected more than 200,000) from all over the world. And combined with the unique fact that it only takes place once every three years, makes it special.

I can still remember the feeling of my first K… the overwhelming size, all those large extruders, gigantic film producing machines, the impressive array of analysis equipment and accessories, the enormous variety of exhibitors, all those halls. That first time, I tried to do this marathon in just one day... Now, much older, I split it over two days with sufficient focus and selection of what I want to see, hear, and experience.

What I also remember, and saw repeated every edition for two decades afterward, are the large groups of people with fully loaded buses and even trailers laden with freebies and gadgets. In the 90s and 00s, as a "citizen," you could score all sorts of bins, chairs, flip-flops (I even once waited in line for an hour...sorry), suitcases, and wheelie bins, which sometimes made the K feel like a upgraded home improvement fair.
But that is much less the case since 2010. The K is increasingly becoming the fair where professionals, in practically every field of plastics, meet and are seen.

Nowhere else in the world (yet) do so many large and medium-sized companies present themselves in such an impressive way as at the K…nowhere else do so many professionals in the field of plastics technology, processes, and analysis gather. I know this is becoming a campaign of praise for the K, but I recommend every plastics-related school and all companies to send their students and new young employees to the first possible K edition…at the very least, they'll be inspired and make connections that will last a lifetime.

The K is the plastics event of the year, and every aspiring and experienced plastics professional should attend. Whether it's pigments, dyes, or additives, extruders and related equipment and screws, injection moulding machines, LASER marking/welding/cutting, plastics producers, recycling, and sustainability, analysis or aging testing, product and Colour development, or innovation, and, importantly, all sorts of training and information... all of that from all countries in the EU and beyond!

As a Colour Expert and Lab Manager, I am of course particularly interested in everything related to pigments, dyes, masterbatches, compounding, injection moulding, and analysis equipment. I try to strike a balance between established companies and new, often relatively small, businesses. And of course, I'll be sure to visit BASF and Envalior (my old love) to see what the latest developments are.

If I could offer the K any advice, it would be, first and foremost, to give startups and small businesses a nice hall (at a very attractive rate!) where they can present themselves, because there are some very beautiful and potentially very interesting gems among them.
Secondly, I'd like to see the EU have a pavilion there as well, because there's quite a bit going on in the world, including in the plastics sector, where the various committees exert a significant influence in terms of policy, ECHA/REACH, and subsidies. How great would it be if the EU also presented itself and explained what it's doing, to exchange ideas with various EU politicians and policymakers, ask questions, or discuss (potential) projects. Large companies have their contacts within the EU or lobby the EU Commission through Plastics Europe, for example, but for small companies and professionals like me, it's much more difficult to find your way in.

It's almost K-time again! I'm certainly looking forward to it, and I hope to see you there, as a fellow plastics Professional. If you'd like to talk, send me a LinkedIn message.

And finally, I'd like to champion the "Kunststoffenbeurs 's-Hertogenbosch" (Dutch Plastics Fair), a much smaller trade fair compared to Düsseldorf, which seems to be hurt by the "big-bigger-biggest" trend of recent years. We must continue to take the plastics industry in the Netherlands (and the entire Benelux region) seriously, and it's time for BASF, Envalior, and Covestro to also have a stand at this pleasant trade fair, as well as all related raw material and machinery manufacturers.