INELEX Fair Draws Thousands to Turkish Venue

New products displayed, and a concurrent symposium offers information.

A roster of 80 companies and thousands of visitors came together April 26-28 for the 11th INELEX Elevator and Elevator Technologies Fair at the İzmir International Fair Center in İzmir, Turkey. Elevator-industry professionals from 30 countries were in attendance.

Nuray Eyigele İşleyen, general manager of sponsor EFOR Fair, offered a welcome to all in attendance, conveying her wishes for a fruitful fair in which participants foster new business networks and cooperation. She was followed by keynote speaker Yusuf Atik, head of ASFED (Turkish Elevator Industrialists Association), who recounted some of the sector’s problems, then stressed the importance of unity and solidarity to overcome them. He expressed his wish that the fair would offer such opportunities.

Other supporting organizations, in addition to ASFED, were the Ege Elevator and Escalator Industrialists Federation (EAYSAD), the Small and Medium Industry Development Organization (KOSGEB) and others. Among the countries represented by industry professionals were Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Albania, Libya, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Pakistan and Georgia. GENEMEK, which had marked the opening of a new plant in Istanbul only the day before, brought in by bus a group of foreign and domestic guests who had attended the factory’s opening ceremony.

The fair welcomed the products of not only companies that produce and market elevator components, but also elevator and escalator contracting companies.  Throughout the three-day event, institutions and organizations, including nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the industrial press and vocational high schools, welcomed visitors to their booths in the fair area. Interest in the fair from nearly all regions of Turkey was intense, especially from the Aegean, Central Anatolia and Marmara areas. The representatives of İzmir governorship and officials with NGOs from the cities of the region also visited the fair. These representatives found the opportunity to become closer acquainted with the sector, come together with company representatives at their booths and receive detailed information on the industry during these visits, for which they were escorted by EFOR Fair authorities.

An elevator symposium held concurrently during the three days of the fair offered presentations by a number of industry professionals, as well as the Turkish Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology. Among the presenters were Sedat Yıldız of GETA Elevator, who discussed the advantages of joint ventures; Mehmet Çetin Gürbüz of MC-LIFT, who gave a talk on remote alarms under TS EN 81-28; and EMO representative Bülent Çarşıbaşı, who spoke on “Residual Current Breaker-Grounding-Energy Quality in Elevators.” There was also a panel discussion on “Design Notice and Applications,” during which discussion leaders stressed such topics as adhering to published regulations and the inevitability of sanctions for those not in compliance.