As an indicator of the continued economic recovery of the material handling, supply chain and logistics industry, U.S. and international attendees registered in record numbers for ProMat 2013—the premier North American manufacturing and supply chain trade expo. The ProMat show and conference is sponsored by the MHI and was once again co-located with Automate 2013.
Hosting exhibitors and visitors from 125 countries, ProMat 2013, which ran January 21-24 at Chicago’s McCormick Place, covered 300,000 net square feet of exhibit space with 785 exhibiting companies. Total registration for the event was 34,085. Visitors included key decision makers in virtually all manufacturing, logistics, distribution and supply chain industries including a majority of the Fortune 1000 and Top 100 Retailers. Attendees were high in quality, with 85 percent of attendees having buying authority and 34 percent planning on spending $1 million or more over the next 18 months on equipment and systems.
Reflecting the growing global nature of the event, attendees from outside the United States at this year’s ProMat represented 125 countries and six continents. They were welcomed by ProMat’s International Visitors Center. ProMat 2013 was a Department of Commerce International Buyer Program Select event.
“By all accounts, ProMat 2013 exceeded exhibitors’ and attendees’ expectations,” said George Prest CEO of MHI. “The energy level among visitors and exhibitors was at an all-time high. Visitors came to find solutions and innovative approaches to their manufacturing and supply chain challenges. They were greeted with a remarkable display of equipment and technology solutions that are key to their productivity and profitability.”
Along with the healthy traffic on the show floor, other highlights of ProMat 2013 included the educational conference that accompanied the ProMat exhibition. This included three keynotes featuring Dr. Henrik Christensen of Georgia Tech, Steve Forbes and Futurist Edie Weiner. The conference also included educational tracks from the Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility (AIM), the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) as well as show floor educational sessions on a variety of topics. More than 9,464 attended ProMat 2013 educational conference sessions.
The first-ever ProMat Innovation Award was awarded to Packsize LLC for best new innovation and to FOX IV Technologies, Inc. for best innovation of an existing product. The ProMat Innovation Award was created to educate and provide valuable insights on the latest manufacturing and supply chain innovative products and services.
The ProMat 2013 Classroom Day introduced students and educators to career opportunities in material handling, supply chain and logistics through hands-on learning and networking with industry professionals. This year’s Classroom Day combined an interactive educational session with a dynamic guided tour of North America’s premier materials handling, supply chain and logistics exhibition.
ProMat sponsor, MHI, launched the newly re-branded association with a booth on the show floor and during MHI Social Hours after the expo on January 21 and January 22. The new MHI offerings includes a redesigned association Web site MHI.org, MHI Solutions magazine and a new Young Professionals Network.
ProMat 2015 will be held at McCormick Place South from March 23-26, 2015.
The next MHI-sponsored trade event will be MODEX 2014, March 17-20, 2014 in Atlanta’s Georgia World Congress Center.
