embedded world will expand again in 2017: "We are expecting 1000 exhibitors in six halls for the first time," says Benedikt Weyerer, Exhibition Director of embedded world at NürnbergMesse. In addition, the previous year's exhibition space had already been exceeded by the end of January. This is another reason why the exhibition has changed slightly this year: Hall 5 has been removed, while Halls 3 and 3A have been added.

The three special areas are also very popular with exhibitors: for example, the safety & security area in Hall 4A, which celebrated its premiere last year, was already fully booked by mid-February. Here, everything revolves around the question of how to design attack-proof hardware and software and protect embedded systems against attacks. The same applies to the electronic displays area in Hall 1: "The response from exhibitors was once again great, so the area is already fully booked," announced Benedikt Weyerer back in January. Companies will be presenting display technologies, flexible displays, human-machine interfaces, graphical user interfaces, touchscreens and 3D displays. Machine-to-machine applications have also become an integral part of the overall topic of embedded technologies. In the M2M Area in Hall 3, visitors will find wireless and wired M2M applications for remote maintenance, tracking and tracing, e-payment, e-mobility and facility management as well as M2M for mechanical and plant engineering.

One trade fair - two congresses

Two conferences, the embedded world Conference and the electronic displays Conference, will be held parallel to the trade fair. This year, the proven embedded world Conference will be held under the motto "Securely Connecting the Embedded World". In 36 sessions and 15 classes, the most important topics of embedded system development will be addressed - divided into the following topic clusters: 'Internet of Things', 'Security & Safety', 'Software & Systems Engineering', 'Hardware Engineering', 'Embedded OS', 'Management Focus'. Rick Clemmer, CEO of semiconductor manufacturer NXP, which specializes in IoT and security solutions, will be giving the conference keynote speech, picking up on the motto of the annual meeting place for the embedded systems scene. Under the title "Protecting the Internet of Things: From Clear and Present Danger to Robust Security", Clemmer draws attention to the challenge that the unlimited possibilities of billions of 'connected end-points' lead to equally unlimited risks. And he calls for new hardware and software designs to be 'self-defending' from the ground up.

At the electronic displays conference, topics range from current display technologies such as LCD, OLED and ePaper to flexible displays, 3D displays, graphical user interfaces and touchscreens. The broad spectrum of applications is also on the agenda, as is the development of the market.

1000 students expected

The organizers are expecting over 1000 students from all over Europe who are enrolled in embedded-related courses of study to attend the Student Day. They will have the opportunity to make contacts with potential employers and learn from industry experts. A special highlight is the keynote speech by Sascha Wolter entitled "My Minecraft Smart Home: Prototyping the Internet of Uncanny Things". In his presentation, he will address typical challenges of the Internet of Things and present the prototype of an ideal hardware and software based on visual programming languages, games such as Minecraft and several IDEs live on stage.