What ACHEMA is, in two lines
ACHEMA is the world’s leading trade fair for the process industries and life sciences: it brings to Frankfurt the technologies, equipment and services for chemicals, pharmaceuticals, packaging, automation and process engineering, flanked by a broad scientific and technical congress. It has been held every three years since 1920, and that triennial rhythm changes everything: whoever isn’t there simply goes unseen for the next three years. The 2024 edition closed with 2.842 exhibitors from 56 nations and 106.001 visitors from 141 countries across more than 110.000 m² of floor space, with a congress of more than 900 sessions and over 30.000 participants.
The practical consequence: at ACHEMA almost no purchase closes on the stand. People talk about plants, valves, automation systems, pharmaceutical packaging lines, that is, technical and capex decisions that mature in the weeks after the fair, inside long evaluation cycles. That is why the number of business cards collected matters less, and how those contacts get qualified, enriched and followed up later matters much more. The value is not in the hall: it is in what happens from the following Monday onwards.
What to exhibit, where to exhibit
ACHEMA is organised not by nation but by themed groups (Exhibition Groups), and that is the first thing to understand in order to position yourself. The main clusters are Pharmaceutical, Packaging and Storage Techniques; Pumps, Compressors, Valves and Fittings; Instrumentation, Control and Automation Techniques. Alongside these sit the Innovation Themes (in 2024: Process, Pharma, Green, Lab, Digital, Hydrogen), areas and themed stages where the most cutting-edge content and the most curious traffic concentrate.
The exact breakdown of themed groups by individual hall for 2027 is not yet published (the organiser releases the Hallenübersicht later on), so plan your position around the themed group, not the hall number. Practical tip: if your product lives across two groups (say a pump for a pharmaceutical process, or a measuring instrument for packaging lines), choose the group your decision-making buyer enters first, and use the other as a secondary traffic channel. Anyone selling automation or digital has every interest in being near a relevant Innovation Theme: there the audience arrives already primed to talk about what’s new, and the quality of the conversation rises.
Visitor profile
The ACHEMA audience is technical and international: 141 countries represented in 2024, with a strong German and DACH core and a significant presence from the rest of Europe, Asia and North America. It is a process-industry audience, not a consumer one: whoever steps onto the stand knows what they are talking about.
In terms of profiles, expect a majority of technical figures with influence over the purchase: production and plant managers in the chemical and process industry, process & plant engineers and plant designers typically make up the largest share of qualified visitors (roughly 40-50%). They are followed by pharmaceutical, packaging and storage managers and instrumentation, control and automation specialists (together another sizeable slice, around 25-35%), R&D, laboratory and quality profiles, and finally technical buyers and procurement managers, fewer in number but decisive in the closing phase. The average seniority is high and so is the technical bar: on the stand you have to be able to answer competently, but above all you have to quickly grasp who you are dealing with, because an engineer who evaluates and a procurement lead who signs need to be handled and followed up in different ways.
How to prepare in the 4 weeks before the event
Week -4: message audit
Review what you communicate and to whom. At ACHEMA the visitor is specialised and short on time: the generic claim “innovative solutions for the process” stops no one. Define two or three concrete messages for the themed groups you belong to (what the product does, on which process problem, with what measurable benefit) and align panels, demos and sales pitches around them. Also prepare answers to the most likely technical objections: here you will get them all, right at the stand.
Week -3: the stand’s operating playbook
Decide who does what across the five days. Who greets, who runs the technical demo, who qualifies, who handles the appointments already booked. Set a clear rule: every useful conversation becomes a registered lead, not a business card that ends up in a pocket. Choose a single capture tool for the whole team and test the flow on an empty stand, so that on day 1 no one improvises.
Week -2: the 3-question qualification form
You don’t need twenty fields. You need three questions that, at the stand, tell you whether it is worth calling back and with what priority. For ACHEMA these work well: (1) which process/plant they are considering renewing or expanding; (2) the project’s time horizon; (3) their role in the decision (evaluates, specifies, signs). Three crisp answers that turn a name into a lead with a level of interest, and that are worth their weight in gold after the fair.
Week -1: CRM integration
Decide now where the leads land, not later. The goal is for every contact captured at the stand to land directly in the CRM with the event tag “ACHEMA 2027”, the answers to the three qualification questions and a voice note from the salesperson recalling the context of the conversation. This is exactly the flow Linkly automates: capture, company-data enrichment, qualification and note, into the CRM with no manual steps. Test the integration on a few dummy leads before you start: the wrong moment to discover the flow isn’t working is the Tuesday morning of day 1.
Is the official ACHEMA app worth it?
Yes, the free official ACHEMA Mobile App (iOS and Android) is useful and worth installing. It does several things well: exhibitor directory with company profiles, the full congress programme, interactive hall maps, a matchmaking function for business contacts and the QR entry ticket, all linked to your myACHEMA account. For getting your bearings, building your agenda and being found, it is a solid tool.
What the app does not do, and what is worth bearing in mind, is manage your sales process. It does not export leads into your CRM, it does not enrich the data of the people you meet, it does not do the follow-up for you and it does not hand you an executive report on how the fair went. Matchmaking helps you set up meetings, but the real contacts you collect at the stand, and from there on you are on your own. On top of that, official apps and portals change with every edition: building your sales system on top of them means starting from scratch every three years. That is why you need a capture capability of your own, independent of the fair: see how Linkly works.
What to do during the 5 days of the fair
Day 1 (Monday): opening and calibration
A break-in day. Traffic is there but thinner, and the audience is the more organised kind, often with an agenda already set. Use it to calibrate: check that the capture flow runs, that the three qualification questions work in the field, that the demos go smoothly. Fix today whatever isn’t working, because from tomorrow you won’t have time.
Day 2 (Tuesday): traffic ramps up
The flow grows. Engineers and production managers start arriving in evaluation mode. Keep your qualification discipline high: every relevant conversation must become a registered lead with its level of interest, immediately, while the context is fresh.
Day 3 (Wednesday): the peak of decisions
This is typically the central and busiest day, the one with the most decision-makers at the fair and the most substantive conversations. Concentrate your best stand people and your most important meetings here. Don’t let volume lower the quality of capture: better to qualify 30 contacts well than to pile up 80 undistinguished ones.
Day 4 (Thursday): consolidation
Traffic is still good but more selective. It’s the right day to follow up with those who came by in the first days “just looking” and have returned with sharper intentions. In parallel, start checking that the leads from the previous days are clean and complete in the CRM.
Day 5 (Friday): closing, lower traffic but high quality
The last day has lower volumes, but those who come specifically on Friday are often motivated and have little time to waste. Close the open conversations, set out concrete next steps, and before you pack down make sure every lead of the week is already in the CRM with tag, qualification and note. Whoever leaves Frankfurt with leads already ready for follow-up has already won the half that counts.
What to do in the 7 days after the fair
This is where the real return on the investment is decided, and the number one factor is speed of response. On technical and capex decisions the contact’s window of attention closes fast: whoever calls back first, with the right context, starts ahead.
- Within 24 hours: send the first follow-up to hot leads (those with a project and a near horizon). Personalised on the content of the conversation, not a generic template. This is where the voice note taken at the stand makes the difference.
- Within 7 days: work the medium-interest leads with technical materials targeted at their process, and propose a concrete second contact (call, site visit, exchange of specifications).
- Within 14 days: go back to those who haven’t answered yet with a different angle, and clearly segment who is real pipeline from who should be put into long-term nurturing.
- Within 30 days: close out the fair with real numbers (leads by level of interest, open opportunities, estimated value) and use that report to decide how to invest at the next edition, which, with the triennial cadence, will arrive in three years.
This is exactly the point where Linkly’s six AI agents work in a chain: contact capture, company-data enrichment, qualification, routing into the CRM, follow-up and reporting. Not to replace the salesperson, but to make sure no hot lead goes cold while it waits for someone to find the time to call back.
Practical FAQ
How much does it cost to exhibit at ACHEMA?
It depends on the themed group, the position and the build. As an order of magnitude for a fair of this level at Messe Frankfurt, bare floor space alone starts indicatively from a few hundred euros per square metre, to which you must add the build, technical services, mandatory fees and logistics: a small stand can sit in the tens of thousands of euros, a structured space rises quickly. Ask the organiser for the updated price list for the 2027 edition: official prices change with every edition.
Which is the best day for important meetings?
Wednesday, the central day, is normally the peak of decision-makers at the fair. Monday and Tuesday are excellent for appointments planned calmly; Friday is quieter but brings very motivated visitors. Concentrate your strategic meetings in mid-week.
When does visitor registration open and why does it concern me?
Registration and tickets go through the myACHEMA account and the official app, and generally open months before the event. It concerns you because many visitors plan their agenda in advance: if you make yourself easy to find in the exhibitor directory with a well-kept profile and propose meetings through matchmaking before the fair, you arrive at day 1 with appointments already booked instead of hoping for passing traffic.
Is there an alternative to collecting leads on paper or business cards?
Yes, and it is strongly recommended given the volume of contacts. The problem with cards and hand-filled sheets is not collecting them: it’s that after the fair no one transcribes, qualifies and calls them back in time. A digital capture system that brings the contact straight into the CRM with the event tag, qualification answers and a voice note wipes out that manual work and shortens follow-up times. It is the use case Linkly exists for.
Is the official app enough to manage leads?
No. The ACHEMA Mobile App is excellent for getting your bearings, browsing the directory and doing matchmaking, but it is not a CRM and it doesn’t manage your funnel: no structured export, no enrichment, no follow-up. For the sales side you need a tool of your own, independent of the fair.
Page updated ahead of the 2027 edition. For official information (dates, floor plans, price lists and registration) always refer to the official website achema.de.
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