GaLaBau 2018: Next round for the leading trade fair

• Even more diversity: for the first time GaLaBau fills 14 exhibition halls

• Trade programme for planning professionals and landscape architects

• “Garden of Dreams” (Garten[T]Räume) area: garden and landscaping trends

All lights are green for the 23rd GaLaBau, the International Trade Fair for Urban Green and Open Spaces, to be held in the Exhibition Centre Nuremberg from 12 to 15 September 2018. Some 1,400 exhibitors and 65,000 trade visitors are expected. For the first time, the four-day event will cover 14 exhibition halls, with international companies displaying a complete range of products and services for planning, installing and maintaining gardens, parks and other green spaces. The honorary sponsor and founding father of GaLaBau is the German Association for Gardening, Landscaping and Sports Field Construction, the Bundesverband für Garten-, Landschafts- und Sportplatzbau (BGL). A 2018 highlight: the new “Conversations with Motorists” forum, to be held at the Exhibition Center on 11 September, the day before GaLaBau. Of course visitors will again be able to enjoy the impressive “Garden of Dreams” at the BGL’s own exhibition space, a full-scale reproduction of various trends in gardening and landscaping. The very lively supporting programme with other special shows, the “GaLaBau Landscape Talks” lecture forum, professional meetings, prize award ceremonies and contests makes GaLaBau Europe’s most important meeting point for the greenspace sector.

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Stefan Dittrich, Director Exhibition GaLaBau is delighted at how the trade fair is shaping up. “GaLaBau 2018 will continue to grow. Thanks to immense demand, especially from the maintenance machinery segment, in 2018 we’ll be adding yet another hall – hall 11 plus the entrance NCC West. But the Playground and Urban Design area will also be bigger. We’re also especially pleased with the increase in number of international exhibitors: at this early date, Dutch companies, for example, have already booked more than 50 per cent more exhibition space than in 2016. And we’ve already seen growth of more than 70 per cent in space booked by organisations from Denmark and the Czech Republic. So in a nutshell – we’re already looking forward to September.”

The new “Conversations with Motorists” forum

In conjunction with the trade journal “Motorist”, GaLaBau will for the first time be offering the networking event “Conversations with Motorists” at the Exhibition Center Nuremberg on 11 September 2018, the day before the fair itself opens. Here’s the general idea: the day will begin with a keynote speech on the main topic. Afterwards there will be a workshop session between participants from the garden/landscaping sector and power equipment suppliers. The day will end with a friendly get-together. As a further added-value feature for dealers in gardening and power equipment during the course of GaLaBau itself, a breakfast for Motorists will be held on the first day of the fair, along with guided tours on various specific themes.

New: GaLaBau on social media

The new GaLaBau event app was launched for the last iteration of GaLaBau. And the march of digitalisation has not stopped in 2018. Since this spring, the green community has also been able to find GaLaBau’s official areas on Instagram and Facebook. The postings are intended to offer creative, honest, and focused appreciations and assistance for the “can-do” attitude of the GaLaBau industry and the people behind it.

A successful continuation: the “Garden of Dreams” in hall 3A

The green movement continues to boom. It’s a symbol for quality of life. Once again at GaLaBau 2018, another main attraction for decision-makers in the industry will be the “Garden of Dreams” in hall 3A. This space, which at the same time will be the BGL’s exhibition area, will provide full-scale examples of various trends in gardening and landscaping. The installation, covering some 1,600 square metres, will offer visitors eye-catching, inspiring presentations of services and products. For example, one urban area will show a full range of all that the GaLaBau industry can do, with a high-rise backdrop, interior courtyard gardens, rainwater management, green façades and green roofs. There will also be a private area with a piazza – an open invitation to linger and enjoy the latest trends in home gardens. Yet another central area is dedicated to more rural settings, with areas for renaturing and kitchen gardens. An additional visitor attraction is the GaLaBau expert forum, with lectures on various specialty topics, which will again be incorporated into the fair as it so successfully was last time in 2016.

Hall 1 and 2: More space for playgrounds and urban design

More good news: at GaLaBau 2018, makers of playground and leisure space equipment will no longer be limited only to hall 1. In response to growing international demand in the playground segment, a portion of hall 2 will also be set aside. Some 150 exhibitors are expected here in all. Once again in 2018, hall 1 will have a special show that the German Federal Association of Playground Equipment and Leisure Facility Manufacturers, the Bundesverband der Spielplatzgeräte- und Freizeitanlagen-Hersteller (BSFH), has organised in collaboration with the “Playground@Landscape” trade journal. The theme for 2018 is “Open spaces of the Future – The playground experience from schoolyard to park.” The special show will offer many ideas about designing playgrounds for schoolyards, day-care centres, parks and public green spaces. There will be parallel presentations at the BSFH Forum on the morning of the second day of the exhibition. Again in 2018 this will be integrated into the “GaLaBau Landscape Talks” forum. The urban design product segment has also booked an expansion, with some 190 companies.

Extensive know-how for planners and landscape architects

For the first time, GaLaBau Landscape Talks will be held in hall 2 in 2018. On the first and third days of the exhibition, visitors can look forward to fascinating presentations conceived by the Garden + Landscape editors at the Callwey Verlag publishing house. These will be repeated each morning and afternoon, so visitors have an ideal way to combine the Landscape Talks with a tour of GaLaBau itself. That affords more flexible scheduling options for interested visitors, so they won’t need to miss a thing. It all starts on the first day of the exhibition, 12 September, with a talk on “Green infrastructure – What can it accomplish?”. Besides examples from current projects, the presentation will discuss green infrastructure’s potential for sustainable urban development. Starting at 14:30 on the second day of the fair, the focus will then turn to plants as a component of urban planning. On 14 September, under the title “The future of green roofs,” full attention will turn to current techniques for roof gardening.

Planners and landscape architects should also include a visit to hall 3A as a fixed part of their schedules. One of the main presenters here will be the German Landscape Architects’ Association, the Bund deutscher Landschaftsarchitekten (bdla). Its stand in hall 3A will highlight not just the profession of the landscape architect and planner, but the bdla itself as an organisation. Each day of the exhibition will have a different focus, set up with experts from both outside and within the association. And of course there will be no shortage of the popular construction discussions.

The BGL will offer yet another attraction in hall 3A for planners and landscape architects. Its GaLaBau expert forum will offer a great many presentations on various topics – and for the first time, in both German and English.

Everything for golf course managers and greenkeepers

Within the GaLaBau exhibition halls, golf course greenkeepers, managers and operators will find not just lawn maintenance machinery and equipment, but seed, substrates and innovative irrigation systems. Distributed among its various halls, GaLaBau 2018 is expecting nearly 150 exhibitors who specialise in installing, maintaining and managing golf courses. Hall 4A will once again be home to the “Meeting Point Golf.” You can find an overview of all exhibitors and products from the golf segment on the Internet at www.galabau-messe.com/exhibitors-products.

Baumpflege (Tree care) LIVE: A special communication area for tree experts

Proper, thorough maintenance is indispensable in keeping trees healthy. Professional arborists, climbers and anyone else interested in the topic will have a set meeting point at GaLaBau: the Tree Care LIVE area in hall 3A which is organized together with the trade journal TASPO Baumzeitung and Freeworker. It’s a place for knowledge and conversation, experiences and networking on every aspect of what trees need. Experts will provide presentations with tips and suggestions about tree care and new products, and will be available for discussions. This especially practically-oriented special show will also demonstrate both time-tested and new work techniques on a special rig that will serve as a substitute for a tree. Interested visitors will also be able to try their own hand at these techniques with expert guidance. For the first time there will also be a green topical café, a great place to linger and talk while sampling a range of gastronomic delights.

Outdoor highlights: the Landscape Gardener Cup and presentation area

GaLaBau is not just a comprehensive product show that fills 14 exhibition halls. It also provides an attractive supporting programme outdoors. The popular Landscape Gardener Cup organised by the Training Association for Horticulture, Landscaping and Sports Facilities, the Ausbildungsförderwerk Garten-, Landschafts- und Sportplatzbau (AuGaLa), has become an integral part of GaLaBau. This nationwide professional competition will gather the best landscape gardening trainees from all over Germany in a tent at the Messepark (Exhibition Park) on 13 and 14 September to show off their professional skills. They’ll all be competing to become the “German Master Team” that will then go on to the World Skills professional championships in Kazan, Russia, in 2019. And of course the next generation of GaLaBau attendees will have their own indoor meeting place as well, at the GALABAU CAMP in hall 3.

Live mowing, digging and chopping will once again be a feature outdoors on all four days of GaLaBau 2018. Some exhibitors, in addition to their stand, will be using the GaLaBau live demonstration area adjacent to hall 12 and along the Silbersee lake in the nearby Dutzendteich park to show off maintenance and earth moving machinery in action on real lawns and soil.

All the prize award ceremonies at the GaLaBau Expert Forum in hall 3A

For the second time now, all prize award ceremonies will be held at the redesigned BGL stand in hall 3. Besides the Innovation Medal, the ELCA Trend Prize, the BGL Education Prize and Silver Landscape award, the winners of the Second Husqvarna promotional competition will also be honoured once again at GaLaBau. This award is given by the “Die Grüne Stadt” (“Green City”) foundation for successful urban greening concepts. The competition for the award is intended to publicise attractive, sustainable concepts for green planning, maintenance and development and encourage municipalities and green space officials to put creative concepts into action.

Schedule for prize award ceremonies at the GaLaBau Expert Forum:

Wed., 12 Sept. 2018, 13:30: GaLaBau Innovation Medal

Wed., 12 Sept. 2018, 15:00: ELCA Trend Prize

Thurs., 13 Sept. 2018, 13:00: BGL Education Prize

Thurs., 13 Sept. 2018, 14:00: Silver Landscape

Fri., 14 Sept. 2018, 13:00: Husqvarna Prize