Future technologies: Messe München wins new congresses

Messe München’s strong guest event portfolio is being expanded with the addition of two renowned congresses from the hardware and software industry, and the computer-based sciences: Messe München has been awarded the contract for theRISC-V Summit Europe, which will be held at the MOC – Event Center Messe München from June 24 to 28, 2024. The summit promotes an exchange on the open semiconductor technology RISC-V. Also new to the portfolio in 2026 will be the WCCM (World Congress on Computational Mechanics) and ECCOMAS (European Congress on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences and Engineering), which will open their doors in parallel at the ICM – International Congress Center Messe München. At both congresses, future technologies will be presented that represent important interfaces to the fields of computer science, mathematics, science, engineering, and technology. The next milestone is Seamless, one of the world’s leading technology trade fairs for fintech and e-commerce.

Messe München has been able to attract a series of new guest events to Munich, and is thus promoting the STEM sector (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) in the state capital.

“It is an huge gain for Munich that the high-tech congresses have chosen Messe München as their venue. With the newly acquired events, Messe München is also once again proving to be an economic driver, since exhibitors and visitors create jobs, boost purchasing power, and generate tax revenue. The congresses bring experts to the state capital from an industry that is experiencing a phase of enormous growth. That’s because they deal with future technologies that are increasingly being adapted commercially—and the entire Munich region benefits from that,” say Dr. Reinhard Pfeiffer and Stefan Rummel, CEOs of Messe München.

Support from politics, business and science

Katharina Kleber, Director Sales Locations of Messe München, points out the good framework conditions: “We are delighted that we were able to convince the organizers with our many years of congress expertise. This was achieved in close cooperation with the state capital of Munich and with supporters from science and research, especially from the University of the Bundeswehr Munich, the Munich University of Applied Sciences, and the Technical University of Munich (TUM).”

The WCCM-ECCOMAS 2026 in Munich is a result of this teamwork. The event combines the World Congress (WCCM) and the European Congress (ECCOMAS). The event is a highlight in the field of computational mechanics, and regularly attracts thousands of participants.

“The WCCM-ECCOMAS World Congress is only held in Europe every six years—the last time the WCCM Congress was held in Germany was more than 30 years ago. It has never before been held in Germany as a combined event with ECCOMAS,” says TUM Professor Wolfgang Wall, a key supporter in the bid application, emphasizing the great significance of this gain.

A unique opportunity

“So it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, as they say,” states a delighted Professor Alexander Popp from the University of the Bundeswehr Munich. He is one of the four initiators of the bidding process for Munich: “What’s special about our WCCM-ECCOMAS Congress 2026 is the high number of individual presentations and specialist sessions. This poses major challenges for the Congress Center, as more than 50 rooms have to be available for events taking place in parallel. At the same time, the space concept needs to be flexible enough to also allow large plenary sessions to be held with audiences of several thousand people. Messe München accepted this challenge from the outset and worked with us to develop creative solutions for a flexible space concept in the ICM and on the immediately adjacent exhibition grounds.”

“I am more than grateful for the support of the ICM and Convention Bureau teams, who showed us right from the start that they see themselves as part of a team project—and that they really want to organize the conference in Munich,” says Cristina Vizcaya, Executive Director at the International Association for Computational Mechanics, highlighting the team effort in the bidding process for the WCCM-ECCOMAS 2026 World Congress.

The Messe München team also managed to win over RISC-V International, the organizer of the RISC-V Summit Europe, in favor of the Bavarian capital. The RISC-V Summit Europe brings together the European and international experts from industry, politics, research and science who are shaping the future of chip innovation based on RISC-V. RISC-V is an open standard for the machine language of processors. It holds great potential for optimizing computing power and energy consumption.

Strengthening domestic industry

The congresses offer the opportunity to draw attention to the relevance of innovative technologies in everyday life: “RISC-V has the potential to significantly reshape the future of IT systems. In the current discussion about semiconductors in Europe and Germany, I see a variety of opportunities to strengthen industry and promote a boom in startups for innovative hardware and software,” says Professor Stefan Wallentowitz from the Munich University of Applied Sciences, who worked with the Messe München team to win the summit.

A sensation for Munich as a center for finance and commerce

“Seamless”, one of the world’s leading technology trade fairs for fintech and e-commerce, has chosen Messe München as its new European home for 2024. The core topics of this event are technologies, trends, and opportunities for European banking innovations, insurtech, payments, retail, and e-commerce. Seamless Europe will be held at Messe München on September 10 and 11, 2024. Two exhibition halls with a total floorspace of 22,000 square meters have been booked. The dynamic organizer has long-term plans in Munich.