Just when I thought the majority of industrial trade shows were a virtually dead marketing vehicle the recent International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) held in Chicago last week breaks all the records for exhibit space and attendance.
There had been a slow death ride over the last decade or two for most industrial shows. This led to a consolidation of many of them to maintain a modicum of square footage and traffic flow. Some related events banded together in the hopes that cross over visitor interest would keep them relevant. Unfortunately they were swimming upstream against the perception that the Internet could provide all the information an engineer or user might need.
But something changed a few years ago. A massive increase in technological development in automation and data exchange, popularly named Industry 4.0, threatened to leave behind many manufacturing industry participants who didn’t keep up with the cutting edge advances. It turns out the Internet itself wasn’t enough of a resource. I’ve often said you can’t search for what you don’t know exists. Some new developments were just beyond what many thought possible, so they were never considered or investigated. Most industry professionals are realizing its different now.
The need for users to keep up and product developers to communicate their capabilities has resulted in a resurgence of many of the traditional technical trade shows and the growth of other new ones. For components and systems, ATX West and Automate come to mind as major benefactors. On the manufacturing machinery side, Fabtech, Pack Expo, and the recent IMTS are typical recipients. Other vertical shows in various industries are also seeing growth in square footage and visitor attendance once again.
Although IMTS had maintained its status as the largest industrial show in the US, visitor interest had languished for the better part of the new millennium. But the last couple shows had seen new life, culminating in this year’s event breaking the all time square footage and attendance record. Close to 130,000 visitors came through the doors over 6 days to view exhibitors covering approximately 1.4 million square feet. Those are significant numbers in anyone’s book.
So, what did I learn at IMTS? Among others, here are 5 things I took away from my time there:
You need to stay up on developing trends – The vast amount of technology and capabilities, both in machinery and supporting elements, exhibited at this show were mind boggling for those that had been going about their everyday business back at home. Trade shows are perhaps the best place to see these new developments first hand. Get your company to let you go to them. But even opening those product release e-newsletters filling your in-box can help educate you on what is happening in your industry.
Almost anything you think might be possible, probably already is – The integration of automation and data communication and processing has created manufacturing control, flexibility, and efficiency almost beyond comprehension. You may not be able to take advantage of every new technology available, but you certainly won’t if you are unaware it exists. You likely should be thinking bigger than you presently are.
The global market is getting smaller, or larger – Most trade shows are truly international events. Suppliers from all around the world gather to promote what they have. And with the US having the largest manufacturing industry, everyone wants a piece of it. You can now access the entire world for a suitable technology or cost basis, shrinking the distance between problem and solution. On the other hand, the international markets are growing too, increasing the potential customer base for our capabilities.
Quality in everything is improving – The old definition of quality is “it meets the spec”. Well, the specs on everything are tightening and getting more stringent. With automation comes the requirement for higher precision, accuracy, and consistency. To be controllable there has to be more reliability. Sure, there is still demand for cheaper commodity products.But performance over price is the growing trend. The higher productivity easily adds value.
Its still about people working with people – Because of the growing technology and the information surrounding it, nobody can keep up with it all. At some point you have to trust someone to help you navigate the complexity of integrating most of these new products and systems. Finding knowledgeable suppliers that understand your needs is not always easy. Being able to talk to a variety of them all in one place makes a trade show an extremely efficient place to screen potential supply partners.
While the resilience of trade shows in the Internet era is surprising to some it makes clear sense to others, especially when there are major spikes in technological development. When things seem beyond belief, you have to see it to believe it. And IMTS made a believer out of me.
Chris Popp
President
C. Popp Enterprises, Inc.
Chris Popp is an industry veteran with over 30 years experience in the sales, marketing, and application of linear and rotary mechanical motion solutions.