Frankfurt IAA Auto Show

It's hard to believe that in 8 hours of walking around I could only scratch the surface of what there is to see and do here but it's true. The show takes place at the trade show complex in Frankfurt made up of about 10 buildings. The indoor display area is at least 3 times the size of the Javits center in NYC for a total of more than 2,000,000 square feet of indoor display area (add to that outside displays).

This year there were about 1,000,000 visitors which is 100,000 per day average, but I was there on a beautiful Saturday, so attendance was well above average. Imagine more than 100,000 people trying to see the same things that you are in the same space of time. It's open for 10 hours each day so every hour 10,000+ people are trying to get close to the same exact cars! If you don't mind crowds it's a lot of fun most of the time.

Here are some photos that give some idea of the size. Keep in mind these photos are of just a few of the larger stands. There were 1,081 different companies exhibiting at the show from OEM subcontractors to tire companies to oil companies to car customizes, even new Chinese car manufacturers.

	The front of the Chrysler building
	The front of the BMW building
	inside the BMW building
	Another section of BMW building
	Inside the main room of the Mercedes building. The second floor display area was actually larger than this(there were more display areas)
	Inside the VW - Audi display. VW had the first floor of this building and Ford had the second floor
	Inside another building where Porsche and other smaller companies had stands
	This is the crowd around the Ferrari stand - it was almost impossible to move - this was as close as I could get being limited to 8 hours.