The numbers just keep getting better – in terms of visitors, internationality, contacts. At the end of Tuesday, seven days into the world’s biggest plastics bash, a total of 217,500 people had come to see what “K” has in store – 14,500 more than did so over the same period of time in 2013. Most exhibitors reported a noticeable rise in the number of visitors from abroad, who were said to be well-prepared with pinpointed questions.

As always, there were many goodies to take along for the hunters and gatherers, who had been out in full force on the weekend. But the main item of value all of us are going home with is not tangible. It is the knowledge we have gained, the insights we have gathered and the impulses these will give rise to over the coming years until Düsseldorf will set new records again.