If you believe the pure numbers, the Hannover Messe Digital Edition from April 12 to 16, 2021 was a complete success: 90,000 registrations, 10,500 products from 1,800 exhibitors. In addition, the conference program featured 1,500 speakers who spoke about digitization, supply chain management, lightweight construction or hydrogen and electromobility. However, technical discussions that did not take place are less easy to count. Of course, the organizer also knows that these were missing out.