iba 2023: Bringing Together What Belongs Together

This year iba will again offer the baking and related processing industry the biggest international overview of the market, thereby more than earning its motto “endlessly unique”. To help visitors not get lost in 10 trade fair halls, the halls feature a custom concept based on the core target groups equipment, ingredients, craft baking and packaging technology.

Around 1,100 companies from around the world will meet in Munich from 22-26 October, 2023, to present cutting edge technologies and trends from along the entire value chain, demonstrate chances for growth and respond to the challenges of the industry.

In an exclusive interview for European Baker & Biscuit, Susann Seidemann, Exhibition Director iba, shared with us a few insights on the upcoming trade fair and the challenges it had to overcome as well as the long-awaited opportunities it brings for the industry.

EBB: Can you tell us what your expectations are for this edition of iba?

Susann Seidemann: Finally, after five years we would like to bring the whole baking industry, together again. So this is one of our first goals. And of course our expectation is that we will have satisfied visitors and exhibitors after five days of iba. Our main goal is to bring together the supply and demand of the industry. We would like to offer a high range of quality products, of ideas, of input for all participants. It’s important to have a place to discover, to network and, where ideas can be exchanged on an international level.

And of course we would like also to present the new trends and current topics of the market. So we would like to bring together what belongs together in this case.

What does this edition bring for the visitors in terms of novelties? What has changed since the last edition? What can visitors look forward to?

There are a lot of new things and ideas we would like to present. One example is the structure of the halls. For this year’s show, we decided to structure the halls into four categories: production technology and equipment, raw materials and ingredients, artisan bakeries and packaging technology. So, spanning over more than ten halls, we will have something like an industry route, which is a totally new way for iba 2023. We also introduced the focus topics, which are reflecting the current challenges of the market. Besides the product range, artisan bakery, digitalization, food trends, sustainability, health, turnkey solutions and quality management are the focus topic and pillars of the event.

And for these topics we will create a tailored experience on the show. We will have special tours conducted by the German Bakers‘ Confederation, lectures, innovations, events and competitions referring to the focus topics on site. So there will be a different structure for the content part as well. And besides all these topics, there’s the iba.START UP AREA which is a new action area supported by PURATOS, where we are presenting national as well as international startups for the first time at the show. Our ambition is to support the next generation of bakers and to offer the visitors a space where they can discover the future of the baking industry. To get inspired, to talk to the startups on site, and to get insights via pitches on the stage. 

I also want to mention the iba.UNIVERSE which is our new content platform. We decided to use the advantages of both on-site presentations as well as the digital tools at our disposal to create a more complex experience for visitors. In the iba.UNIVERSE, visitors can find all about the exhibitors, innovations, productions, events at the stands as well as the program. This new platform is content based and also built up on the four key topics such as artisan bakery, digitalization, food trends and sustainability. Visitors can inform themselves before the show, engange with all registered participants from the iba.UNIVERSE and also stay in touch after the show online. 

Moreover, visitors can also vote for the iba.START UP AWARD at the iba.UNIVERSE. All startups will present themselves via pitch videos and participants worldwide can vote for their favorite, with an on-site ceremony on October25th at 4pm.

What would you consider to be some of the most pressing challenges the industry currently faces, and how does the iba trade show help bakers address some of them?

The focus topics have emerged from market surveys and discussions we had with the industry worldwide. Our goal was to find out what challenges the baking industry is currently facing. And then step in and offer a space for possible solutions via knowledge exchange, product presentations and panel discussions at iba. 

The shortage of skilled workers, for example, is one of the most pressing challenges for the industry. And this naturally drives a growth of digitalization and smart solutions such as A.I. 

And of course there is also a bottleneck of resources. Or the energy crisis. Or the prices. Hence, these challenges had a big influence for the development of the agenda for 2023. 

Therefore, we are addressing these challenges at iba and help the industry to find solutions together. We will have a digitalization area, lectures about sustainability or how to retain employees as well as new product presentations with ideas on saving energy costs and resources. 

You can read the rest of this article in the September-October issue of European Baker & Biscuit, which you can access by clicking here.