The organisers of Germany’s successful SPS/IPC/Drives automation and motion control exhibition have announced plans to set up a version of the show in Italy. The SPS/IPC/Drives Italia exhibition and congress will be held for the first time in Parma from 19–21 October, 2010.

The show is being targeted at users and specifiers of automation equipment. According to the organisers, Mesago Messe Frankfurt and Messe Frankfurt Italia, 60–80% of Italy’s automation industry is located in the regions of Lombardy and Emilia Romagna, within easy reach of Parma. Italy is Europe’s second-largest market for automation and electrical systems, after Germany.

The organisers of SPS are also involved in a joint venture with Chinese partners to hold a four-day show called SPS – Industrial Automation Fair Guangzhou, from 8-11 March, 2010 in Guangzhou, China.

An earlier attempt to expand the SPS/IPC/Drives model from its Nuremberg base was unsuccessful. In May 2005, a show called SPS Electric Automation America was held in Rosemont, Illinois, but this event attracted fewer than 100 exhibitors and around 1,300 visitors and has not been repeated.

♦  A group of industrial shows being held in Dubai by the organisers of the Hannover Fair, have been rescheduled. The shows – including Motion, Drive and Automation (MDA) Middle East – were due to be held from 19–21 January, 2010, but will now take place from 9–11 February, 2010.