Great success of anniversary competition at leading trade fair Light+Building

There were some happy faces for Martin Conrad from Switzerland, Benjamin Dunst from Austria and Dominik Göb from Germany. They are the winners of the 10th European Competition of Young Electricians (CYE), which took place from 7 to 9 April 2008 as part of the world’s key trade fair Light+Building in Frankfurt/Main. After competing for 20 hours it was clear who had best managed the building system installation task based on the KNX standard. The maximum number of points was 280, and the difference between the first three places was not more than 16 points – so the race was neck-and-neck. "It was a unique experience to have been there, with the chance to get to know so many new things" commented European champion Martin Conrad during the award ceremony in the historic Kaisersaal of the Frankfurt Römer.

In total there were twelve nations competing in the 10th CYE. The other participants were Daniel Skov Pedersen (Denmark), Armin Bürgstaller (Italy), Graham Rooney (Ireland), Koen Weyne (Belgium), Jorge Ignacio Coín (Spain), Peter Vass (Hungary), Tommy Viktil (Norway), Charly Pons (France) and Pedro Miguel Fernandes (Portugal) who all received a certificate of 4th place. (The above sequence of participants follows the numbers of the competition boxes and is not indicative of any ranking in the competition.)

The CYE arena attracted a lot of attention from the public. The international youth competition was held in the centre of the trade fair, in the entrance area of Galleria Nord.

This meant that many visitors paid close attention to the action taking place in the various competition boxes.

During the award ceremony on the evening of 9 April 2008 in the historic Kaisersaal at the Frankfurt Römer, which was as festive as it was entertaining, the guest of honour, Parliamentary Secretary of State at the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology Hartmut Schauerte, together with the chairman of the CYE, Klaus Träger, handed over the medals and certificates. The evening was concluded in the historic Römerhallen which are situated underneath the Kaisersaal.

The Light+Building trade fair attracted a total of 165,000 visitors – 22 percent more than the previous exhibition. About 40,000 of them – or every fourth visitor – was somebody working in the trade, which means that this group represented the largest proportion of visitors.

The 10th CYE is run by the European umbrella organisation for the electrical engineering trades, the Association européenne des entreprises de l’installation électrique (AIE), in Brussels/Belgium. The event has been organised by the Zentralverband der Deutschen Elektro- und Informationstechnischen Handwerke (ZVEH), Frankfurt/Main (German Association of Electrical and IT installation enterprises). Apart from the KNX Association, Brussels, there are 28 well-known companies that give support to the competition.