A successful anniversary event was the International Dental Show IDS, which came to an end on Saturday, 18 March 2023, after five intensive days. This year, the leading international trade fair for the global dental industry celebrated its 100th birthday and was also held for the fortieth time - with an impressive turnout among exhibitors and visitors: around 120,000 trade visitors from 162 countries came to Cologne to find out more about the comprehensive range of dental medical and dental technology products presented by 1,788 exhibiting companies from 60 countries. "IDS 2023 was convincing all along the line and at the same time proved that it continues to reinvent and develop itself even after 100 years. The dynamic, innovation and power emanating from IDS are impressive. And IDS has once again confirmed that it is a world-leading trade fair. The quality of visitors was - and I say this not only as Chairman of the VDDI, but also as an IDS exhibitor - sensational. Together with Koelnmesse, with energy, ambition, creativity and visions we will successfully lead IDS into the second century of the event's history. This year's claim, '100 years of IDS – shaping the dental future' stands for the synonym for the outstanding significance of the trade fair today and in the future," commented Mark Stephen Pace, Chairman of the Association of the German Dental Industry e.V. (VDDI). And Oliver Frese, Chief Operating Officer of Koelnmesse added: "For five days, we experienced an IDS that more than lived up to its claim as a leading international hub. This gives the global dental industry the necessary impetus for the coming months and at the same time underlines the global attraction of IDS. The event's outcome is all the more remarkable given the current challenging geopolitical environment."
IDS convinced once again with its high level of internationality and quality of the visitors. 60 percent of the trade visitors came from abroad. As usual the attendance from the EU countries Italy, France, the Netherlands, Spain, but also from Belgium, Romania and Greece was high. A high share of visitors was recorded from Asia, South America, the USA and Canada again.
The very good visitor quality is underpinned by the first results of a visitor survey:
According to the survey, around 80 percent of the trade visitors from home and abroad are involved in the buying and procurement decisions of their company. The visitors' assessment of IDS 2023 was correspondingly positive: Over 80 percent were very satisfied with the event, 83 percent praised the comprehensive overview of the offer and almost 90 percent would recommend IDS to their business partners.
Furthermore, 84 percent of the respondents were satisfied with the digital platform IDSconnect and the associated additional offers.
Trends: Stringent digital workflow and improved sustainability
Two trends were clearly recognisable at the 40th International Dental Show 2023: The stringent digital workflow and an improved sustainability. For example, digital X-rays that are upside down can be turned the right way around using artificial intelligence, whereby the image plate scanner used is produced in a CO2 neutral way. . In addition the digital workflow in the laboratory is becoming more effective. For example, two models can be scanned now in the extraoral scanner at once.
However, the fact remains that due to the bureaucratic obstacles brought about by the Medical Device Regulation (MDR) the companies are forced to implement many internal resources for the approval procedure (staff, costs, time). If they were to implement these tied-up resources in the research and development departments instead, the companies of the dental industry would be able to present even more innovations.
Vibrancy and diversity – BZÄK and VDZI praise the outcome of IDS 2023
"IDS has succeeded in achieving a fantastic re-start after the restrictions and requirements enforced due to the COVID pandemic. The high number of visitors and exhibitors proves the vibrancy and diversity of our profession. As a long-standing partner, the German Dentists Association is also delighted to have been part of the IDS anniversary," summed up Prof. Dr. Christoph Benz, President of the German Dentists Association (BZÄK).
IDS 2023 was also a total success for Dominik Kruchen, President of the Guild Association of German Dental Technicians e.V. (VDZI): "After the COVID pandemic, the International Dental Show has shown how important personal contacts and the professional exchange at a trade fair are for the key players of the dental family. The crowded exhibition halls show satisfied visitors, who are enjoying a pandemic-free trade fair experience. Many dental technicians were on-site again at this anniversary edition of the trade fair to examine the new technologies. They are pioneers of a positive and efficient usage of the presented digital dental technologies. Hence, dental technicians are and remain to be the dentist's reliable expert and service partner for outstanding dental technology. The strong dental technician trade relies quite rightly hereby on well-trained young professionals. The new training regulations that came into force in August 2022 are an expression of this. The dental technology apprentices once again impressively demonstrated their outstanding competence at this year's IDS in the scope of the Gysi Prize."
IDS 2023 in figures
1,788 companies from 60 countries took part in IDS 2023 on exhibition space spanning 180,000 m². These included 433 exhibitors from Germany as well as 1,351 exhibitors and four additionally represented companies from abroad. Foreign exhibitors accounted for 75 per cent of the total. Including estimates for the final day of the trade fair, around 120,000 trade visitors from 162 countries attended IDS, of which around 60 percent were from abroad.
The next IDS - the 41st International Dental Show - is scheduled to take place from 25 to 29 March 2025.
Exhibitor quotes on IDS 2023:
Simon Campion, President and Chief Executive Officer, Dentsply Sirona
"It was important for us as a company to be directly on-site again and meet up with our customers in person - because that makes a difference. Following the motto 'United for better dentistry' we offered our stand visitors a programme with 40 hours of live demonstrations and hand-on training. In the scope of our panel discussions, we also made clear statements on the themes digitalisation and sustainability. We can positively influence the lives of millions of patients. But to do so we need a mutual exchange and increased cooperation."
Andreas Utz, Chief Operating Officer, Straumann GmbH Germany
"A successful IDS has come to a close for us. In addition to numerous, intensive discussions with partners, customers and interested parties, we had many participants, who followed our diversified programme in the Arena of Excellence or per live stream with keen interest. The huge interest shown in our innovative, digital solutions, for instance such as our new design and collaboration platforms smilecloud or Falcon, our new dynamic navigation system for the implementation of implant treatment, was particularly impressive. For us being present at IDS was both confirmation and motivation: We will carry on investing continually in our digital solutions to improve the customer experience for both the practitioners and the patients."
Josef Richter, Chief Operating Officer & President, GC Europe AG
"The anniversary event of IDS 2023 went extremely well for us. We already noticed on the second day that our investments in an even larger stand and many live presentations had paid off: Numerous visitors informed themselves at our stand and the decision-makers reached a conclusion. IDS is particularly important for us, we were also represented with a 160 m² stand in 2021 - in spite of the extraordinary conditions. Because the personal exchange between the industry, users and the trade is of immense importance within our dental family. Scepticism prevails within several industries that the digital trade will overtrump on-site trade fairs, but in 2023 one noticed that the customers and users could hardly wait to dive into the trade fair experience."
Fred Freedman, Vice President Member Services, Dental Trade Alliance DTS
"The IDS Meeting is the largest and best international dental meeting in the world. The 2023 IDS Meeting can be summed up in one sound bite, 'the IDS Meeting is back'. With the enormous crowds and thousands of international distributors and visitors. This is a must for all U.S. manufacturers and companies looking for new international business."
Peter Bausch, General Manager Dr. Jean Bausch GmbH & Co. KG
"Finally being able to experience a large audience at IDS again after the years of the pandemic, really inspired me over the past days. And since just like IDS my company also celebrated an anniversary in 2023 and has been operating for 70 years now, it was especially important to me to offer the international trade audience numerous interactive product presentations. The personal exchange is so to speak irreplaceable within the dental family – and this can only be experienced at the leading global trade fair, IDS."
Steve Burman, Vice-President, Pascal U.S.A.
"Among all dental congresses, the IDS remains the gold standard. No other congress offers us the opportunity to showcase our products and meet with our international partners in one setting, which saves both time and money. IDS allows us to develop new relationships and new business across the globe in addition to rekindling existing relationships and planning new strategies with our current dealers. Support staff at the U.S. pavilion are excellent, organized and always willing to help."
Dr. Martin Rickert, Chairman, KaVo Dental GmbH
"Overall, a very positive mood can be sensed among our customers, the partners and the team. We get the feeling the visitors are glad to be back at the trade fair to inform themselves about existing and new products and to engage in an exchange. Of course, we are also delighted that in our role as exhibitors we have personally obtained a very good outcome and so far have attained even better results than before the pandemic."
About IDS
The IDS (International Dental Show) takes place in Cologne every two years and is organised by the GFDI Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Dental-Industrie mbH, the commercial enterprise of the Association of the German Dental Industry (VDDI), and is staged by Koelnmesse GmbH, Cologne.
Note for editorial offices:
IDS photos are available in our image database on the Internet at www.english.ids-cologne.de/imagedatabase
Press information is available at www.english.ids-cologne.de/pressinformation
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For details and information on the dental industry:
VDDI/GFDI - Press Office
Burkhard Sticklies / Agnes Plümer
sticklies@vddi.de / pluemer@vddi.de
Your contact for IDS:
Volker de Cloedt
Communications Manager
Koelnmesse GmbH
Messeplatz 1
50679 Köln
Germany
Tel. +49 221 821-2960
Fax +49 221 821-3544
Email: v.decloedt@koelnmesse.de
Internet: www.koelnmesse.com
