Aqua Netherlands successful run and sees growth opportunities

After being forced to skip two years, the trade fair Aqua Nederland took place again last week in Evenementenhal Gorinchem. More than 340 exhibitors presented themselves to 5500 unique visitors. Furthermore, there was an extensive knowledge program with more than 40 knowledge sessions that were well attended. It was also the first time that Aqua Netherlands had expanded to Next Level, the renovated upper floor in Gorinchem.

"The last edition of Aqua Netherlands was already three years ago, in 2019. Due to corona, the patience of our exhibitors, visitors, partners and ourselves was of course greatly tested. The yearning to see each other and the products and innovations live again was incredibly strong. We heard this reflected in many conversations. In the past two years there were several online initiatives, but nothing beats being together physically. Moreover, people were slowly getting 'screen-tired'. Everyone wants to get out there again, look each other in the eye and discuss the state of affairs in the water sector live. There is a realization in the market that we have to do it together and learn from each other. For this Aqua Netherlands is a great and independent platform and we are therefore pleased that we were able to organize this again for all these professionals," says Mark de Jong, Head of Sales.

There was a joint Aqua Business Lounge on the exhibition floor for the first time with the exhibition partners ENVAQUA, Water Alliance and NWP each organizing their own activities at the exhibition, such as TechTalks, the Innovation Street, the Innovation Drink and various knowledge sessions. There were also new collaborations with Energy and Raw Materials Factory and Platform Dio who had invited their entire network. For example, for an Energy and Raw Materials Factory gave an Inspiration Session on raw material recovery including networking drinks and Platform Dio together with eleven partners organized a demonstration afternoon on Digital Project Tools. Aqua Netherlands is also known for its quality knowledge program. There were more than 40 sessions in the theaters with a different theme each day in the Water Theater (Process Water Tuesday, Water Board Wednesday and Drinking Water Thursday) and the Urban Water Theater (with themes focused on climate, sewer management and urban water).

Robin Vissers, Marketing Event Manager: "Once again, a great foundation has been laid for the coming years. We want to further increase the knowledge program and expand the offerings at Next Level, which focuses on knowledge, advice, innovations and careers. Naturally, we are doing a careful analysis based on the statistics and survey results to further improve the quality of the fair. We aim to serve the four water pillars of Waste Water, Drinking Water, Process Water and Urban Water & Sewerage Management well by offering an attractive knowledge program for each target group at both a practical and a high knowledge level. Our goal is to do this even more together with leading industry associations and knowledge institutes. We would like to counteract the fragmentation in the market with all kinds of separate knowledge events, so we offer the possibility of these events to take place during Aqua Netherlands. This makes it more efficient for visitors to visit both the marketplace with products and the knowledge platform on one day."

For more information: www.aquanederland.nl.