PC Control 02 | 2014 cover At Hannover Messe 2014 Hans Beckhoff welcomes German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, this year’s official partner country of the fair. Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Beckhoff at Hannover Messe As part of her traditional opening-day tour of the Hannover Messe, German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel visited the Beckhoff booth on 7 April 2014, where Managing Director Hans Beckhoff presented his company and the basic technologies it produces for the Industry 4.0 concept. Among the people accompanying Chancellor Merkel was Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, this year’s official partner country of the trade show, Dr. Johanna Wanka, Federal Minister of Education and Research, Stephan Weil, Prime Minister of the state of Lower Saxony, 50 other guests and about 100 journalists. Hans Beckhoff and his employees welcomed the illustrious delegation. After a short presentation of his company, Beckhoff explained the benefits of his company’s control and drive technology, using a Embedded PC and the eXtended Transport System (XTS) as examples for innovative technolo- gies from Beckhoff enabling “Integrated Industry”, according to the motto of this year’s Hannover Messe. At the end of his presentation, Beckhoff also explained the status of the “ScAut” research project, which the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research The delegation of the Federal Chancellor during the opening tour (from left to right): has named a “Leading-Edge Cluster” in the so-called it’s OWL (Intelligent Tech- Johanna Wanka, Federal Minister of Education and Research, Jos Out, Managing nical Systems OstWestfalenLippe) technology network. Director of the Dutch Beckhoff distributor Industrial Automation Link BV, Mark Rutte, Angela Merkel, Hans Beckhoff, Friedhelm Loh, President of the German ZVEI associa- tion, Stephan Weil, Prime Minister of the state of Lower Saxony..