It’s the greatest construction equipment show on earth. Nothing is even close. There were 3,423 exhibitors. Approximately 580,000 visitors from 200 countries, show organizer Messe München said, and it covered 6.2 million square feet. If you can’t quite get your head around how big that is, I promise you’re not alone.
It’s located in the old Munich airport, but they’ve added on to it. Imagine LAX or O’Hare with all the terminals, hangars and runways filled with equipment and then add some more space to that. You’ve been to ConExpo and thought it was pretty big? It’s three or four times the size. Some of the stands – they don’t use the word booth over there because the word doesn’t describe it when a company like Caterpillar has a whole hangar and that’s just for its inside space – take months to construct and include showrooms, conference rooms, restaurants and offices and are multiple stories high. Many cost several million dollars to construction and will take another few months to dismantle.
The show is a full week long, but you’d need months to see it all. So that sets the stage. Pictures can never do it justice. This is just the first of a few galleries we’ll post to try to give you a flavor of Bauma 2016. There’s more to come.