Held May 10–13 in Munich, Germany, Analytica 2016 attracted 35,002 attendees, stable nearly the same number as in 2014. However, the number of exhibitors increased 6.5% to 1,244. The largest number of exhibitors were from Germany, China and the US. Attendance at the scientific sessions grew 12.3% to 1,839.

The exhibition booths were crowded with customers, as companies launched several new products (see page 6). Bruker, Metrohm, Shimadzu, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Xylem were among the companies with the largest booths. Agilent Technologies and PerkinElmer chose to exhibit in two of the five halls, with booths for their life sciences businesses located in that hall.

Several companies held press conferences, including Bruker, Gilson, IDEX, Shimadzu Deutschland, Tecan and Thermo Fisher Scientific. At its press conference, Shimadzu Deutschland announced the launch of a consumables business, which consists of chromatography accessories, vials and columns. Other notable news included Gilson’s preview of LabHub, a cloud-based platform for managing and tracking protocols, including pipetting and liquid handling usage. It is expected to launch next year.

Product introductions emphasized ease of use to address nonspecialized lab technicians. Software interfaces, in particular, appeared to be key to addressing this end-user group.

Analytica 2018 will be held April 10–13.