Garden and more: that is what the international garden fair spoga+gafa 2015 promises.

Around 2,000 exhibitors from over 60 countries will present their new products in the Cologne exhibition halls from 30 August to 1 September and offer trade visitors from all over the world a top international level innovation show. In addition to a comprehensive exhibition spanning around 225,000 square metres, this year's supporting programme also offers the trade fair visitors information and inspiration.

From target group-specific lectures to industry get-togethers, through to shows and practical areas: In addition to the new products of the exhibitors, spoga+gafa has plenty of other events on the agenda.

With its prominent location on the trade fair, this year the Garden Café is the central Speakers' Corner. Numerous lectures and discussion rounds will take place here 'round the clock' and will offer the trade fair visitors amusing entertainment 'without detours'. The Taspo Talks will be staged daily at 11:30 a.m. as well as at 3.15 p.m. on Sunday and Monday. The trend agency Chlorosphere (France) will also be holding various trend lectures in the Garden Café. These can be heard and seen daily at 10:00 a.m. as well as at 1:45 p.m. on Sunday and Monday. When no lectures are being held, the team of the 'maibeck Für Dich' (maibeck for you) restaurant and 'Kult; Büro Köln' (Cult; Cologne Office) will be demonstrating their culinary skills. The top gastronomists Jan Cornelius Maier and Tobias Becker will be presenting vegetarian dishes from the local and seasonal vegetable and herb kitchen daily at 12:30 p.m. and 4.15 p.m. (Tuesday, 1 September, 3:15 p.m.).

For the first time this year, spoga+gafa is holding an exhibition that focuses on the theme sustainability. Here, not only the well-known ecological aspect will addressed. Social and economic sustainability will also be dealt with in the course of the Sustainability Exhibition. Visitors are heartily welcome to gain their own impression of the premiere in Hall 5.2.

After its successful premiere in 2014, the cooperation with the Callwey publishing company (Garten+Landschaft / Garden+Landscape) is also being continued. Together with industry experts, a lecture programme that is specially designed for garden and landscape architects will be offered. The half-day congress kicks off with a lecture entitled 'Wood, water, tiles - room concepts and materials for the planning of private gardens' on 31 August 2015. The trade visitors can look forward to the following themes and speakers on the Monday of the fair in Hall 10.2:

- 10:00 a.m.: 'Room concepts for the private garden' (Michael Horeis, Horeis + Blatt Partnerschaft Garden and Landscape Architects BDLA, Bremen)

- 10:45 a.m. 'Water in the garden - calculation of the pump performance' (Maximilian Colditz, landscape architect, Category Manager and Technical Consultant at OASE GmbH, Hörstel)

- 11:30 a.m.: 'Professional construction of terraces made of wood and wood-based materials‘ (Wolf D. Meyer-Ricks, Meerbusch; landscape architect, publicly appointed and sworn expert for garden and landscaping)

- 12:15 p.m.: 'Professional tile laying outdoors' (Manfred Vaupel, master tiler, PCI application technology, Augsburg, West Construction Chemicals Retail Europe, Hamm) The event, for which training points will be awarded, finishes at 1:00 p.m.

The winners of the young designer competition, 'unique youngstar', will also be selected at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday in Hall 10.2, garden unique. The expert jury will select the first three prize-winners from among the 16 nominees and the prototypes on the theme Outdoor Living exhibited in Hall 10.2. The finalists are also in the running to win a public prize. This link leads to the public voting: http://www.spogagafa.de/spogagafa/Landingpages/Contest-youngstar-garden-unique/Contest-Youngstar-Garden-Unique-Voting.php

Once again in 2015, things will be heating up in the Grill Park (outdoor area between Halls 7 and 8)  In addition to numerous product placements, which reflect the entire spectrum of the grill industry and the barbecuing process, together with celebrities from Cologne, Sebastian Morgenstern, 2012 German Vice Grill Master, will ensure tasty entertainment with his grill show at 12:00 noon and 15:00 on Saturday and Sunday. Of course, the Barbecue Industry Association Grill (BIAG) is also strongly represented in the Grill Park. New this year: The BIAG is offering professionals, buyers and customers a forum, comprising of a 'get-together' and exchange of news among the grill industry during the BIAG Buyers Brunch at spoga+gafa on Monday, 31 August 2015, from 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

There are also plenty of opportunities for networking at this year's spoga+gafa thanks to numerous, successful industry get-togethers: Exhibitors, visitors and media representatives are heartily welcome to attend the 'IVG Garden Party' on 31 August, which begins at 6:30 p.m. at the stand of IVG in Hall 5. In the Plant Park, traditionally the location of the Association of German Garden Centres (VDG), everything revolves around the living green and current garden centre themes. The closing of spoga+gafa is at the same time the starting signal for the BHB Garden Summit on 2 September 2015 (CC North, Koelnmesse). This year the participants can look forward to a varied congress programme following the motto 'Looking beyond the garden fence'.

The spoga+gafa 2015 is open to trade visitors on 30 August and 31 August from 09:00 a.m. to 06:00 p.m. and on 1 September from 09:00 a.m. to 05:00 p.m. 

The Garden Day 2015 is open to end-users and trade visitors on 29 and 30 August from 09:00 a.m. to 06:00 p.m. 

Further information is available at www.tagdesgartens-koeln.com.