From seeding and mulching to wood utilization: the supporting program of Interforst 2018, which will be held on the exhibition grounds of Messe München from July 18 to 22, is just as diversified as the range of products and services on offer. Following is an overview of the Congress, forums and special shows as well as competitions and prize-giving ceremonies.
Green Couch
From Wednesday to Saturday, experts from the worlds of business and politics will sit down on the “Green Couch” and discuss current topics of silviculture and forestry. There will be a highlight right at the start of the trade show: Michaela Kaniber, the new Bavarian State Minister of Food, Agriculture and Forestry, will have a talk with Josef Plank, Secretary General of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Sustainability and Tourism. Other expected guests on the Green Couch are Philipp Freiherr zu Guttenberg, President of the Consortium of German Forest Owners AGDW – Die Waldeigentümer, and Peter Konrad, President of the Austrian Association of Forest Entrepreneurs.
Congress and forums
The slogan of this year’s Congress and Forum Program will be “Forestry in transition – adapting to remain competitive!”
The Forum in Hall B6 will be located in the midst of the trade show activities. Here, independent experts in the field will report on their experiences from Thursday to Sunday, seeking to exchange views and ideas with the trade audience. The superordinate topics will be forest technology, safety and health at work as well as practical tips for forest entrepreneurs and forest owners. In contrast to the forums, the Congress, which will also take place in the Forum on Thursday and Friday mornings, is rather of a scientific nature. Representatives from science and research will report on future topics. This year, the subjects of climate change and wood utilization as well as digitalization and bioeconomy will take center stage.
Special shows
The special show entitled “From seedling to squared timber – the timber processing chain” in Hall B6 will map the entire value-added chain, ranging from seeding and mulching to forest care through to the final product.
In its special show “On a large and small scale – using technology to improve security”, which will take place on the open-air site, the German Social Insurance for Agriculture, Forestry and Horticulture [Sozialversicherung für Landwirtschaft, Forsten und Gartenbau] places a particular focus on safety at work and health aspects of the use of technical tools.
Demonstrations
The Bavarian Logging Championship will be organized on the open-air site, too. On first day of the trade show, the apprentices of the Bavarian State Forest Enterprise will compete against each other in a vocational contest.
On Thursday, there will be a comparative competition between the national teams from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, among others, in the following disciplines: chain fitting, bucking by combined cuts, precision bucking, limbing and felling.
Finally, the big Bavarian Logging Regional Championship with around 100 participants from the whole of Europe will take place on Friday.
At the Stihl Timbersports® shows, top athletes will present different impressive disciplines of lumberjack sports. Moreover, all visitors will have the opportunity to test their own talent on a two-meter hand saw (“single buck”) under professional guidance by the athletes.
Austria Country Day
On Thursday, the supporting program of Interforst will be entirely dedicated to Austria. A few lectures in the Congress and the forums will refer to our neighbor country.Furthermore, the associations of forest entrepreneurs from Germany, Austria and Switzerland will provide information on the topic of education and further training daily. In this context, valuable tips and information will be offered at the joint pavilion.
German Forest Award
The Deutsche Landwirtschaftsverlag [German agriculture publisher] will confer the German Forest Award for the first time this year. The award has been launched in the categories “Forest owner of the year”, “Forest entrepreneur of the year”, “Forester of the year”. The winners will be selected on the second day of Interforst 2018. All forest entrepreneurs, foresters and forest owners in the Dach region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) are eligible to participate. The specialist jury will assess the following criteria: idea, innovation, originality, exemplary character, economic efficiency, marketing and advertising measures, considering sustainability.
Testing of saw-splitting automatic machines
In addition, the Deutsche Landwirtschaftsverlag [German agriculture publisher] will present four different saw-splitting automatic machines in a comparison. The results of the comparative test will be presented live in the “forstpraxis spezial” action area on the open-air site. During the trade show, the commented demonstrations will take place five times per day. Subsequently, there will be a possibility of exchanging views and ideas with the demonstrating editors.
