Frankfurt am Main – October 31, 2026 -- The German Machine Tool Builders' Association (VDW) will launch NexGeM (Next Generation Metalworking), a new trade show on digital metalworking, as a co-located event of Hannover Messe from April 5 to 8, 2027.

VDW Managing Director Dr. Markus Heering said the move was overdue. Machine tools are embedded in the full digital industrial value chain, from planning to service, he said, yet connected machines receive too little attention outside a few specialist fairs.

NexGeM runs as a standalone event, not a scaled-down EMO Hannover

NexGeM is an independent show that links mechanical engineering with the IT and software sectors, which have so far exhibited largely separately. Because digitalization is its focus, it is not a classic machine tool fair and not a "small EMO Hannover," according to the organizers.

Brownfield machine fleets are the central cost hurdle for AI adoption

The VDW argues that AI potential can only be tapped in a fully digitalized factory. Many companies have not completed that step, because digitalizing existing machine fleets (brownfield) is complex and usually expensive.

The show will cover automation, connectivity, robotics, and software and platform solutions for machine tools, production systems and peripherals. Listed technology areas include:

• Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)
• Digital twins and AI
• Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)
• Cloud and edge technologies
• Cybersecurity for industrial processes and data integrity

Exhibits will focus on applications that are usable today or in the short term, including for existing machines. Heering said the VDW aims to support investment decisions, whether in an existing plant or a new purchase.

Hannover Messe gives exhibitors access to decision-makers beyond metalworking

Under the motto "Metal Works Digital," NexGeM targets networking between machine builders and IT managers, digitalization managers and automation experts. The VDW says Hannover Messe draws decision-makers from automation, energy, digital and tech companies and politics, whom exhibitors rarely meet at classic metalworking fairs.

Dr. Jochen Köckler, CEO of Deutsche Messe AG, which organizes Hannover Messe, said the format extends the industrial ecosystem to the machine tool and metalworking sector and offers visitors shorter distances and broader topic variety.

Heering said the show addresses a gap that could help secure the competitiveness of German and European industry. Registration is open now.