Day 5 – Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Group Exhibit

Last day and it is still going at full speed but you can tell that a certain level of tiredness has set in. Stands that only yesterday had large numbers of people on were now having only one or two and people were talking more about impressions of the Fair. These impressions form the basis of this short daily overview.

It is fair to say that most people here were concerned about the impact of the recession not just on the industry but also specifically on this event. Footfall was definitely slow on Monday and Friday but this could have been down to more people coming for one or two days rather than the whole week.

In terns of business-to-business, which is the real core of this event, many exhibitors that I spoke with were really pleased with clients and customers attending but also much higher level discussions than over the past few years. So a number of smiles today. Cash being king at the minute it was surprising that a number of companies are still talking about expansion plans with a handful of companies also talking about just having closed funding rounds. These next tranches of funding are going into for example, new facilities, large manufacturing space, recruiting high calibre staff and launching new product lines.

The new technical forum has had a couple of teething problems but reported interest for next year is up and the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Group Exhibit has reported that nearly 50 companies have already signed up for next year.

Finally as to market trends, small stationary mCHP, off-grid and high-temp PEM are all key this year. It will be interesting to see how they have developed by the time of the 2010 Group Exhibit.