ProMat 2015 registration tops 37,000

Manufacturing and supply chain professionals gathered in record numbers in Chicago last month for ProMat 2015, the largest material handling and logistics trade expo in North America.

With registrations topping 37,091 attendees, show producer MHI announced a 8.8% attendance jump over 2013.

The four-day event, March 23-26, covered 340,000 net square feet of exhibit space in Chicago’s McCormick Place with 802 exhibiting companies. ProMat was once again co-located with Automate 2015.

ProMat visitors included key decision makers in virtually all manufacturing and supply chain industries including a majority of the Fortune 1000 and Top 100 Retailers. The quality of the visitors was very strong with a large number of buying teams from key firms in attendance.

“ProMat 2015 was the largest in the event’s 30-year history,” said George Prest, CEO of MHI. “The energy level among visitors and exhibitors was at an all-time high. Even more exciting was that ProMat visitors came with buying plans and a confidence that has not been seen in manufacturing and the supply chain in many years.”

According to registration data, 86% of attendees had buying authority and 39% plan 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 115 countries and six continents. They were welcomed by ProMat’s International Visitors Center.

Along with the traffic on the show floor, other highlights of ProMat 2015 included the educational conference that accompanied the ProMat exhibition. This included keynotes featuring Google’s Renee Niemi, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey and technology pioneer Steve Wozniak. The conference also included a keynote panel discussing the findings of the 2015 MHI Annual Industry Report.

The conference included over 110 show floor educational seminars on a variety of topics and a Supply Chain Workforce Summit. Webinars of ProMat 2015 educational seminars will soon be available at ProMatShow.com, according to MHI.

During ProMat, MHI celebrated its 70th Anniversary with an event on Wednesday, March 25 featuring comedian and impressionist Frank Caliendo. MHI donated $25,800 in ticket sales from the event to the Material Handling Education Foundation, Inc.

During the anniversary celebration, MHI announced the 2015 MHI Innovation Award winners. The winner of Best Innovation of an Existing Product was CubiScan for CubiScan 25 and winner of the Best New Innovation was Forklift Simulator for Forklift Simulator.

The winners of the first-ever MHI Young Professional Network (YPN) awards were also announced at this event. The YPN Mentor Award went to Michael B. Romano of Associated and the YPN Outstanding Young Professional Award went to Gregory R. Conner of Bastian Solutions.

ProMat 2015 Student Days 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 the ProMat show floor and off-site facility tours. Over 200 students and faculty from 48 schools participated in Student Days.

ProMat 2017 will be held at McCormick Place from April 3-6, 2017.

The next MHI-sponsored trade event will be MODEX 2016, April 4-7, 2016 in Atlanta’s Georgia World Congress Center.