The times they are a-changin'

Shop keepers put items in their windows to lure in customers, the same way market traders load their stools with fresh produce to attract passers by. It's no different at a trade show; companies display new products, all polished up to catch the eye of end users or maybe distributors walking the aisles.

With a footprint of 45,000 square metres and over 300 exhibitors sprawling over four halls at the NEC, Birmingham, UK, this summer's International Materials Handling Exhibition (IMHX) was too broad and not worth the expense for most lifting companies - as they proved by their absence. And, true enough, there was an abundance of forklift and stacking machines stealing the focus of what was reported to be around 18,000 visitors. The fact that my name badge was scanned every time I returned from the toilet might have swelled this slightly!

But is it exhibitions that companies don't like or getting lost among the labyrinth of material handling products that trade shows often are? If the latter is true, fine, but don't be hasty and take yourself out of the shop window altogether.

Admittedly, I agree with Bob that the world is changing. For example, shoppers can now go into a search engine online and tell it what they are looking for instead of going out and waiting until they see it. In this respect, modern-day shopping represents a complete role reversal. In fact, some lifting companies offer the same service on their websites and, ironically, one firm even advertised such a tool on its stand at IMHX. But, remember, we work in a backward industry. Don't expect your customers to follow you out of the exhibition hall and onto their laptops just yet.

Interestingly, the Lifting Equipment Engineers Association (LEEA) attracts growing members to its more intimate annual exhibition (attracting, say, 30 exhibitors), which precedes its AGM, confirming that, in the UK at least, there is still room for exhibiting in companies' budgets, but maybe not in the material handling arena in a broader sense.

In a booming market it's easy to neglect the show floor and, true, the market will be increasingly exposed to alternative ways of buying products, but be prepared for an awkward and prolonged period of transition.

Trade show organisers must strategically place their shows and with the right regularity to ensure their success. If you ask me, the Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA) has got it right with NA (more domestically focussed) and ProMat (with a more international focus) taking place on alternate years. The balance of visitors and the two-year break between the same event has seen numbers swell every year.

CeMAT Asia, meanwhile (organised by Deutsche Messe), has a point to prove when it opens its doors at the Shanghai Int’l Expo Center, Shanghai, from 10-13 October. I reckon the organisers have got it wrong by staging the event every year.

There's no doubting the potential of the Chinese lifting business - it is expected to achieve 25-30% growth this calendar year compared to last, and is expected to achieve 10-15% growth the following two years. But its major trade show has yet to really gain international status. And this is a shame.

Organisers claimed to attract 80,000 visitors and 300 exhibitors - up from 274 the previous year - from 25 countries to last year's show, but visitor numbers were actually well down (some said by as many as half).

This year, German manufacturer JD Neuhaus and remote firm Itowa, from Spain (among others from that part of the world), have opted to stay away from China and will instead exhibit at CeMAT India (coming up at the end of the year), while manufacturing giant Demag won't exhibit either. Such an exodus wouldn't happen if the show was biannual.

As other trade shows have learnt, it's quality and not quantity that the international market values most in this changing world.

Richard Howes, Editor