A hot trade fair autumn

If you want to discover innovative solutions, follow trends or make new connections, trade fairs and events are still the perfect opportunity. September is an important trade fair month, as many trade fairs take place during this month, both in Germany and internationally. From 15 to 19 September 2025, for example, the beverage and liquid food industry will be looking to Munich, where the world's leading trade fair drinktec will open the month of trade fairs. Labelexpo Europe will take place in Barcelona at almost the same time (16 to 19 September). The world's largest event for the labelling and packaging printing industry is influenced by the PPWR and technological change through AI and automation. These are topics that we will encounter at FACHPACK, the central meeting place for the packaging industry and its users, which opens its doors a week later (23 to 25 September). As with Labelexpo and drinktec, digitalisation, EU regulations and sustainable material innovations will also play a major role in Nuremberg. "Transition in Packaging" could be the headline for these three trade fairs if K, the international trade fair for the plastics and rubber industry, were not playing with the same buzzwords. Buzzwords are a phenomenon that can be found in many areas, mostly in marketing. Of course, they can help to attract attention to certain trends and developments or to simplify complex issues. But due to their condensed and often simplistic nature, over-simplifying a complex topic can cause important nuances and details to be overlooked. "Digital transformation" has been on everyone's lips since the proclamation of "Industry 4.0". In other words, at the beginning of the 2010s. Since then, this buzzword has been on display in large format at trade fairs. And yet Germany is not one of the frontrunners when it comes to the use of digital technologies across the economy, as outlined by the KFW in its study "Germany's position in digitalisation in an international comparison". It was also found that many German companies still pay too little attention to the strategic importance of digitalisation or generally give little thought to the strategic direction of their companies. Perhaps the popularity of the buzzword has led to it becoming worn out and overused and being used in contexts for which it was not originally intended. If we stick with "digitalisation", the over-simplification is perhaps wrong in this case, because "digitalisation" refers not only to the process of converting analogue data into digital form, but also to the possibilities of digital technologies in terms of business models, new revenue streams or added value. I don't know how we can counter buzzword-laden marketing. The topics of the upcoming trade fairs are too important to be reduced to buzzwords. So take a breath and, for example, explain the complex, multi-faceted interlocking of data and systems for the "digital transformation" in more depth - because without precise definitions, all buzzwords remain empty.