Kick-off WoTS 2026

“But people don’t come to trade fairs anymore, do they?” It is a classic. Usually uttered by someone who has been invited five times already but was busy anyway. On Thursday, April 16, that assumption was expertly, and with some charm, dissected during the WoTS Exhibitor Kick-off. Not with marketing rhetoric, but with an uncomfortable truth: anyone who thinks a trade fair is about information still hasn’t grasped the concept.

In 1956, 41 companies already knew what some still doubt in 2026: collaboration is not idealism, it is a strategy. It was the birth of Het Instrument, the precursor to what is now called WoTS. Not to stack products, but to tell a story together. Seventy years later, that goal has remained surprisingly intact. Only the context has changed. Thoroughly.

Information is everywhere. Solutions are not.

Because information? It is everywhere. With a single search query, you have more technical documentation than an engineer can read in their entire career. AI happily helps out. Plenty of answers. But solutions? They are scarce. Information creates no value. Application does. And that is precisely where the problem lies.

The reality is that only a limited group of organizations can independently convert the abundance of technology into working solutions. The rest seek specialists, integrators, and partners. People who not only know what can, but also what works. And that is precisely what a fair facilitates: meeting, context, and trust. Or, as Dirk Stans, Chairman of the FHI, summarized it during the kick-off: “you come for one concrete question and go home with ten new ideas”.

No webinar can compete with that.

AI as a tool, not as a replacement

Naturally, AI was also given its stage. And rightly so. AI is changing our work, our processes, and our expectations. But the idea that AI is taking over thinking is particularly appealing to those who prefer not to think anymore. The PI–AI–PI line of reasoning was refreshingly clear: first Personal Intelligence to formulate the right question, then AI as a powerful tool, and subsequently human intelligence again to assess the outcome and translate it into action. It is precisely in that final step that the need for expertise, experience, and dialogue arises once again. Not for an algorithm, but for a conversation.

That also explains why trade fairs are not disappearing, but are actually becoming sharper. Where it used to revolve around machines and meter readings, it is now about implementation, integration, and realizing concrete solutions. Things you don't download, but discuss. Not behind a screen, but at a stand, with someone who takes responsibility for what they say.

The message to exhibitors was as clear as it was confronting: WoTS is not a service. It is a platform that only works if everyone contributes. Being present is not enough. Standing still is not either. The power lies in the collective. In the conversation. In the courage to address the doubters and pull others along.

From 1956 until long after our retirement

So no, trade fairs are not over. On the contrary. They force us to do again what technology was originally intended for: connecting people to solve problems. From 1956 until long after your – and my – retirement.

Curious? Visit the website of the largest industrial technology trade fair in the Benelux. www.wots.nl