This week partner associations, advisory board members and media representatives met to talk about the Vision trade fair taking place in October. The program also included the Vision / VDMA CEO Roundtable with Basler, MVTec, Teledyne and the VDMA Machine Vision department. The focus was on the challenges and future opportunities of the industry.

“The European image processing industry has achieved exceptional growth over the last ten years and is a very attractive industry,” says Mark Williamson, Chairman of the VDMA Machine Vision Department at the Vision / VDMA CEO Roundtable. “Unfortunately, due to the current economic and geopolitical situation, we were unable to repeat the records of previous years. Although we are starting to see improvements, it is unlikely that the European machine vision industry will return to growth before the end of 2024.”

With the emergence of new AI technologies and approaches, the market potential for image processing technology continues to increase. The VDMA Machine Vision department expects an upswing from autumn with Vision 2024. As part of the sneak preview, Florian Niethammer, Head of Trade Fairs & Events at Messe Stuttgart, gave an outlook on the coming vision: “Despite challenging market conditions, the vision is on a positive development path and reflects the positive expectations and development opportunities of the industry. Vision already has 385 exhibitors from 37 countries. New inquiries are added every day and the 400 company mark will soon be reached. By October we expect exhibitor growth of over 10 percent compared to the previous event. We are very pleased to welcome the industry to the world’s leading trade fair for image processing here in Stuttgart in a few months.”