The central Ligna stage - the Ligna.Stage - can also be found in Hall 12 in the 2025 anniversary year of the world's leading trade fair for the woodworking and wood processing industry. All presentation slots are already fully booked on Monday to Thursday from 10 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. and on Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.. Various Ligna exhibitors are taking part, including the European Organization of the Sawmill Industry (EOS), the Fachagentur Nachwachsende Rohstoffe e. V. (FNR), the Fachschule Holztechnik Melle (FHM), ForestX AB, Henkel, Leuco, Valmet and Weinig. The entire stage program will go live on 14 April 2024 with all presentation slots, topics and speakers at www.Ligna.de
The Ligna.Stage is split into a morning (10 a.m. to 3 p.m. including lunch break) and afternoon program (3 p.m. to 5.30 p.m.). From Monday to Thursday, the presentation slots are filled with both Ligna.Circular topics and presentations on the Ligna.focus topics. On Friday, the focus will be exclusively on the focus topics.
Ligna.Stage for knowledge transfer
Parallel to the Ligna.Stage presentations, a total of six themed islands will be set up around the stage on all days of the trade fair, where various partners will provide information, best practices and advice on individual aspects of the large area of the circular economy.
"With the Ligna.Stage, we want to offer all visitors to the trade fair a thematically relevant stage in the middle of the trade fair action. It is important to us that the presentations are designed as a clear transfer of knowledge. Every visitor should take away concrete added value per slot. With their contributions, the speakers pay tribute to precisely this claim. These are topics from the industry for the industry. Everyone who works in the woodworking and wood-processing industry and also across industries can and should benefit from the content of the Ligna.Stage lectures," says Stephanie Wagner, Project Manager Ligna at Deutsche Messe AG.
Ligna.Stage: Highlights of the Ligna.Circular program
The circular economy secures the long-term competitiveness of the woodworking and wood processing industry. It increases efficiency and resilience in the use of required resources and enables the diversification of business models. Ligna.Circular brings together the pioneers of the circular economy to jointly identify potential and develop innovative cooperation models for a sustainable industry.
From Monday to Thursday, the Ligna.Stage will be asking pressing questions on the topic of circularity: On the one hand, how can in-house production processes be made more circular and, on the other, how can plants and services actively contribute to establishing value creation cycles? In addition to new business and service models such as refurbishment and "pay-per-use" concepts, the focus will also be on new machine developments and the optimization of existing processes, particularly in the processing of recycled and reusable materials.
Monday offers a comprehensive introduction with its focus on "Transformation". Axel Berger from the Enkelfähigkeit and Haniel initiative will open with a cross-industry look at the circular economy. Heiner Strack from the German Furniture Industry Association and Dr. Jan Lüdtke from the Thünen Institute will shed light on the role and prospects of the wood processing industry. In the afternoon, the focus will be on "Transformation meets Innovation". Michael Rupp from Dieffenbacher and Dr. Steffen Eggers from Continental will provide practical insights into the implementation of the circular economy in their companies. Anja Stolte from the technical college for wood technology in Melle will also show how sustainable skills for the circular economy are taught during training.
On Tuesday, following the presentation of the German Timber Construction Award, everything will revolve around circular timber construction. In cooperation with the Association of the Wood-Based Panel Industry (VHI), a high-caliber panel will discuss the status quo and future prospects for timber construction. Anemon Strohmeyer (VHI), Prof. Dr. Anette Hafner (Ruhr University Bochum) and Simon Wimmer (Tegel Projekt GmbH) will talk about innovative building concepts and the structural challenges of sustainable timber construction.
Wednesday is dedicated to the topic of service innovation. Linda Dierke from Effizienz-Agentur NRW will present the innovation workshop program "Circo", which supports companies in developing circular business models. Weinig and Fraunhofer IPA will provide practical insights into innovative service models such as pay-per-use concepts and maintenance programs. Another highlight is the "Wind of Change" panel, which will examine the future of wind power in cooperation with the Fraunhofer WKI. The panel will discuss how disused wind turbines can be recycled and new, cycle-optimized wind turbines can be designed at the same time.
On Thursday, Ligna.Circular will focus on cooperation as the key to successful circular transformation. Anja Stolte will present a successful collaboration between the Fachschule für Holztechnik Melle and Richter Akustik. Another example of successful cooperation between industry, research and service providers is the "Recycling for ReUse" project of the TU Braunschweig with partners from the field, which focuses on the evaluation and processing of waste wood for reintroduction into the cycle. The panel with Festool, Hilto and Stihl, together with Weinig, will present a further cooperation approach, highlighting the potential and challenges of collaboration between leading tool and machine manufacturers.
Ligna.Stage: Highlights of the focus topic program
From Monday to Thursday, the Ligna.Stage will be dedicated to exhibitor presentations on the Ligna focus topics from 3-5.30 pm, and on Friday from 10 am to 3 pm. Various speakers will present selected content to the audience that is clearly tailored to the requirements of the woodworking and wood processing industry.
On Monday, for example, Paul Götz from Leuco will present on "Increasing efficiency through digital tool management - scanning, producing, sharpening" and Cornelia Dietz from Leica Geosystems AG on "Digitization of measuring processes - from the construction site to production - yes, it's that simple." On Tuesday, the Ligna.Stage between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. will be dedicated to the German Timber Construction Award. The afternoon program will exceptionally focus on Ligna.Circular topics. On Wednesday, VDMA Holzbearbeitungsmaschinen e. V. will present "Startups@Ligna for the future - Manufacturing the possibilities with new solutions" at 3 pm. At 4 pm it's time for the Innovation Pitch of the FNR - Fachagentur Nachwachsende Rohstoffe e. V. "It's a match! - Matchmaking of application research & start-ups". On Thursday, the EOS - European Organization of the Sawmill Industry will present its "Horizon EU funded Project - Sintetic" and the company Microtec with its contribution to the focus topic "Connectivity". On Friday, Carl Barok from ForestX AB will speak on "Optimized glulam production with smart planning" and Christoph Schweizer from Palette CAD AG on "Everyone talks about efficiency, we make it tangible - the potential of digital consistency". (OM-4/25)