The OTWorld International Trade Show and World Congress, held May 19-22 in Leipzig, Germany, brought together 21,400 trade visitors from 92 countries, 623 exhibitors from 41 countries, and more than 300 international speakers, the highest attendance in its history. The focus was on rehabilitation, training, integrated care, robotics, artificial intelligence, and care provision in crisis and war zones.
The event served as a meeting place, workshop, think tank, and stage to answer a question: How do we enable people to enjoy mobility, independence and participation—in a world that is becoming older, more digital, more uncertain and more vulnerable?
“For the challenges are growing simultaneously: demographic change, rising care needs, a shortage of skilled workers, financial pressure on healthcare systems, digitalization, crises, disasters, and wars. This makes resilient networks and shared frameworks all the more important. We need places where knowledge can be shared quickly, experience brought together and the future envisioned with courage,” OTWorld said.
To mark its 50th anniversary, OTWorld’s campaign, “50 Years-50 Voices,” highlighted people whose daily lives have been transformed by care that helped them regain mobility, live more independently, rebuild trust, or experience a moment of true freedom.
The event included the new OTWorld.eSummit format to focus on patient management, care documentation, service verification, digital workshop management, platform logic, software, and artificial intelligence; Youth.Academy TO, combining the promotion of young talent with international knowledge transfer; and a dedicated Physiotherapists’ Day to strengthen the exchange between therapy and technical care.
Running parallel to the trade show, the World Congress saw experts from the fields of medicine, technology, therapy, science, and clinical practice. More than 300 speakers from over 30 countries shaped an international program featuring symposia, workshops, lectures, and poster presentations.
“The fact that the trade show and congress are so closely interlinked is what makes OTWorld particularly strong: Here, innovation is not merely presented, but professionally contextualized, discussed, and taken further,” said Peter Franzel, head of events and exhibitions, Ottobock. “The trade show thus not only showcases the sector’s current state but also provides important impetus for the future.”
“The World Congress has shown that the future does not emerge from individual disciplines. It emerges where medicine, therapy, technology, and science come together to focus on people. The time for soloists is over,” said Doris Maier, MD, Congress president and medical director at the BG Unfallklinik Murnau.
The next OTWorld will take place from May 16-19, 2028, in Leipzig.
