Having spent three days in Munich this week at the Electronica trade fair I am happy to report some very positive signs.

And just to make sure, I corroborated my observations with some key industry media contacts I met there and everyone seems pretty positive about what we saw at the Messe.

OK there was nothing really earth shattering in the form of announcements or many real technology breakthroughs to analyse, but there were several positive things to take away.

Visitors

First, there were lots of visitors, especially on Wednesday and Thursday and they were engineers, engaging with suppliers, discussing projects.

Stands

Second, there were some fantastic stands, both in size and presentation effort. I’ve not seen stands that big in Munich for over 10 years, some confidence has certainly returned.

Atmosphere

Third, there was an up-beat atmosphere, lots of senior people on stands getting involved.  And refreshingly a hint of fun without too many tasteless stunts, along with solid demonstrations of cool and innovative products.