Due to the existing travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic and in close coordination with industry, partners, and advisory boards, Messe München (Munich, Germany) has decided to postpone its LASER World of PHOTONICS trade fair to April 26–29, 2022. The World of Photonics Congress will be held in a digital format on the original trade fair dates of June 20–24, 2021.
One of the main grounds for this decision is the large share of international exhibitors and visitors, accounting for more than half of the total number of participants, a high proportion of whom come from other continents. Under the current conditions, holding LASER World of PHOTONICS in June 2021 would make it impossible for the trade fair to provide the on-site platform for innovations and products with in-depth technical discussions that is so highly valued by the industry.
Messe München has worked out the details of postponing the planned trade fair in close consultation with the Exhibitors’ Advisory Board. A clear majority of the exhibitors surveyed support the date change.
While the trade fair gets new dates, the scientific congress will be held as an online event on the originally scheduled dates of June 20–24, 2021. At the virtual World of Photonics Congress, there will be five conferences with more than 40 subtopics. The range of topics will extend from basic research to applied science, from laser science, photonics and quantum optics, optical metrology, digital optical technologies and biomedical optics to the use of lasers in production engineering.
Until the next LASER World of PHOTONICS in Munich, a new webinar series will facilitate knowledge exchange and communication in the industry: The first two editions of “LASER World of PHOTONICS Talk” will focus on the trend topic of quantum technology. The series will start on March 3 at 11:00 a.m. CET and will be streamed live. Participation via the LASER World of PHOTONICS website is free of charge.