The positive response from the various sectors included in the event, the new services offered to participants and a broad, highly dynamic programme of side events is to mark the next edition of Cumbre Industrial y Tecnológico, the Industry and Technology Summit, which is to take place between 25 and 28 September at the Bilbao Exhibition Centre.

Three months before the opening, almost 700 exhibitors from 25 countries have already registered for the International Manufacturing Technologies and Machinery Fair, where they will be able to exhibit the latest innovations from countries such as Spain, Germany, USA, France, Italy, Portugal and Sweden, although there will also be representatives from Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, The Netherlands, Israel, Japan, Norway, Poland, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey and the Ukraine.

This year, the Industry and Technology Summit is the only event aimed at the leading sectors in the manufacture of capital goods. The response obtained from automation and welding companies, as well as the level of participation recorded overall to date suggest that this will be a multisectoral event with strong commercial potential.

Firms from the iron and steel industry, machinery for cast iron, forging, rolling, surface treatment andsubcontracting will be located in Hall 1, while Hall 2 will house firms from the fields of welding, automatics, electronics, supplies, metrology, handling, industrial maintenance and new technologies. Finally, Hall 3 will be given over exclusively to industrial subcontracting.

With a total number of 354 companies from 17 countries confirmed so far, Subcontratación [“Subcontracting”] remains the only international fair in this sector in Spain and one of the benchmark events in Europe. Germany, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, China, Denmark, Egypt, Spain, France, The Netherlands, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and Turkey will be some of the markets represented at this event for industrial subcontracting and intercompany co-operation. The 2005 fair reported a growth rate of 13%.

Following promotional activities abroad to encourage group participation, a formula designed especially to encourage the presence of small and medium-sized firms, there will also be groups of company from Portugal, Italy, Argentina and The Netherlands, along with groups of Spanish companies from Álava, Vizcaya, Guipúzcoa, Alicante, Cantabria, Seville, Vigo and Navarra. Associations such as ACICAE, representing the car industry in the Basque Country, ASIMECO, the industrial association for the improvement of competitiveness, and HEGAN, representing the aeronautical sector in the Basque Country, are to organise, exhibition areas exclusive to their members for the first time. At these areas they plan to implement a number of initiatives.

Finally, Subcontratación will be the backdrop for the announcement of the 2nd Nexo Awards, created by the event's Technical Advisory Committee to publicly recognize the efforts of individuals, firms and institutions in the progress, promotion and internationalisation of the sector.

For year’s Summit, the Bilbao Exhibition Centre has provided exhibitors with special new services to enhance their participation in the fair and maximise their profitability. With this in mind, alongside the usual activities intended to keep visitors up-to-date with the latest information and facilitate their access to the fair, variety of promotional tools are also on offer, such as the design and launch of mailshots and programmes of organised visits. The latter will take the form of pre-arranged interviews, an element of great added value that will be managed by the organisers on the basis of the list of firms and buyers provided by exhibitors.

As in previous years, as part of the strategy by the visitors’ department to attract top-level representatives, the Industry and Technology Summit will again welcome delegations of foreign buyers made up mainly of directors and production managers from countries all over the world. Efforts under this programme are co-ordinated by Bilbao Exhibition Centre agents abroad, the foreign network of the SPRI and the commercial offices of each area, and have focused so far on 13 countries: Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Morocco, Tunisia, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, France and Portugal.

The Industry and Technology Summit will again include quality seminars on a wide variety of subjects. The first draft of the programme includes a seminar by AEM on "Excellence in Maintenance Management", one by EVE under the title "Energy Savings and the Reduction of CO2 Emissions by Industry", one on "Optimisation and Planning of Production in Industrial Firms: the Application of IT" organised by Infor Business Solutions, and a seminar by AENOR which is to coincide with the association’s 20th anniversary. The 4th International Technical Forum on Casting announced by Azterlan-Tabira and a Round Table on the New EN ISO 3834 Standard by CESAL round off the wide range of topics currently on the agends.

The “Contracting Forum”, a service offered to exhibitors and visitors alike with a view to energising their presence at the Summit by providing them with strategic information of interest, is to create an additional space for commercial exchanges between contractors and manufacturers. More than 800 meetings were held under the framework of this initiative in 2005.