Blisters, Buzzwords and a Renewed Belief in Manufacturing – Hannover Messe 2025 Reflections
You know it’s been a good event when you leave physically wrecked but mentally recharged. These Hannover Messe 2025 reflections come with a head full of ideas and a bag full of half-eaten mints, scribbled notes, and business cards from some brilliant conversations. And feet that may never forgive me. Because this year’s show wasn’t just big. It was bold. Overwhelming at times. But ultimately, it was worth every step. The Bright Lights of Big Tech The major booths delivered exactly what you’d expect—visually stunning demonstrations of digital twins, AI-powered simulation, autonomous robotics, and slick narratives about the future of industry. It was hard not to be impressed. Some stands felt like walking into a science fiction set. You could see where we’re going—highly automated, intelligently connected, predictive and powerful. But somewhere between the towering screens and pristine digital models, I found myself asking: Where’s the grit?Where’s the human reality?Where’s the story of the operator who’s not quite sold on dashboards? Or the tech lead who spent 18 months debugging their “plug-and-play” analytics stack? Too many conversations hovered at 30,000 feet. Vision without the bumps. Strategy without the scars. The Corners Are Where the Magic Happens And then I wandered off the
