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After a day at the “Kunststoffenbeurs” (Plastics Fair in Netherlands) 2024 in the Brabanthallen last week, I thought about how much I actually enjoy trade fairs.

I was never a fan of the Home Fair in Amsterdam and the Pasar Malam fair; the “AutoRAI” (Amsterdam International Motor Show) did somewhat appeal to me, but I haven’t been to one in about 20 years. In general, I have often sighed that I am not much of a fair person...

But why do I like the trade fairs so much?

First of all, I am meeting “old friends” in my field and, often while enjoying a tasty snack and coffee, you can chat about the past period, what is happening in the world of pigments, dyes and plastics, what the trends are and who or what is becoming important.
And if, like me, you pay particular attention to the, for me, unknown companies, you come into contact with a range of fun and interesting people who can sometimes be enormously innovative. For example, I did not know that Wageningen University has a Research department that focuses, among other things, on all kinds of biobased plastics and even has an impressive machine park available for all kinds of assignments and projects for external partners, both production and testing.

I discover again and again that my world within DSM Engineering Plastics (now Envalior), however wonderful and challenging, was limited to the “DSM R&D proven technology” companies such as KrausMaffei, Arburg ( and sometimes Engel), Datacolor and Konica Minolta (and sometimes BYK Instruments), Instron and Zwick… excellent companies with very nice and high-quality equipment, but the real world is really bigger!
It is interesting to see what a company like Plastima (Breda, NL!) presents with COLLIN Lab & Pilot Solutions (extrusion) and Dr. Boy injection moulding machines (also lab scale models).

Also not unimportantly, you will discover that although BASF, Celanese, Envalior and Ascend are the largest producers of Engineering Plastics, there is a world of smaller and medium-sized companies that make interesting products, such as polykemi (Sweden) and DOMO (Belgium). And not infrequently you find more innovation strength in the field of sustainability especially in these (smaller) companies (for example recycling as a business unit or an integral part of the company).

The same applies to producers of pigments-dyes and masterbatches. Everyone in the colour world of Europe knows SunChemical, Lanxess, Heubach, Venator, Oxerra, Kronos, Chemour... knows of Avient and Tosaf/Colloids. But producers such as ColorChem and Broll (via J+F Chemicals), Shepherd, Milliken and Buckeye or Rowa, Holland Colours and Italmaster may very well be more interesting! And… about the wide variety of national and regional masterbatch producers I could even write an extensive blog.

At a trade fair you can exchange information, expand your network and hear and see interesting (short) lectures and demonstrations. The mother of all trade fairs is of course the K-fair in Düsseldorf (next year!), which is an overwhelming experience, especially for newcomers, but the smaller fairs such as Compounding World and “Kunststoffenbeurs” are actually more appealing because it provides a calmer environment to speak with other professionals and salespeople.

The most important, of course, is that these fairs match my expertise and interests. That is why I find the “Kunststoffenbeurs” so much fun and interesting, that is why I go to the Plastics Recycling Show Europe almost every year, love to visit the Compounding World Expo, enjoyed the European Coatings Show and am very enthusiastic about the “MaakIndustrie Expo Hardenberg” (Manufacturing industry Expo-NL and nicely close to my home) and the newly established “Nationaal Kunststof Congres (National Plastics Congress; Polymer Science Park, Zwolle-NL).

Whatever your field, visit trade fairs... it is interesting, network-widening, informative and above all fun!