One of the things I really like about industrial design is that the breadth of the field allows an ID'er to attend a wide range of events, where your peers either wear funky eyeglasses (downtown gallery events) or Coke-bottle spectacles (manufacturing technology geekfests).

One of the events that clearly falls in the latter category is Germany's FAKUMA trade fair for plastics processing and injection molding, a veritable "Mecca of the European plastics industry." Attendees won't be throwing back multicolored martinis; instead they'll peruse "Theme parks [addressing] energy efficiency through the use of electrically powered injection moulding machines" and check out over 1,700 exhibitors from 35 countries.

Given the current economic climate, FAKUMA sees itself as particularly relevant this year, asserting that "the markets will only be able to regenerate themselves quickly on the basis of new, resource-saving and energy-efficient products."

Click here for more info.