Manufacturers Ready to Buy Despite Stock Market Woes

DEARBORN, MI, October 21, 2008 ? In contrast to the grim financial news from New York and around the world, an unprecedented number of attendees filled the halls on opening day at the 2008 FABTECH International & AWS Welding Show, introducing METALFORM.

More than 12,000 manufacturing and welding professionals attended the opening day of this first-ever show in Las Vegas, with more than 21,000 for the entire three-day event. And the response from exhibitors indicates attendees were ready to buy.

"It was a big show for us. We had the largest number of leads from any trade show we've been in going back to 2000,? said Al Julian, vice president marketing, Megafab.

"If you were to buy into what the media is telling us, you wouldn't have expected anyone here today,? commented Tony Caruso, vice president of sales & marketing for ISB. ?But just take a look at the hall…it's amazing."

Thermadyne Industries Global Communications Director Wes Morgan reported, "FABTECH/AWS is always an important event for us. The Las Vegas location worked out well for us. The quality of meetings with our distributor customers made the trip worthwhile. We even had a couple of cameo performances by Elvis. We've already started our planning for Chicago in 2009."

First time exhibitor Alex Laymon, President of DPSS Lasers, Inc. was impressed with the serious buyers he met. ?These were people who were well prepared, and came to the show looking for specific solutions to specific problems.?

Whether the attraction was the new technology, the new location or sightings of ?Elvis,? statistics from the show support exhibitor claims of sale leads being both high in number and caliber. This was the first FABTECH International & AWS Welding Show, introducing METALFORM show west of the Mississippi and it attracted a new audience — 56 percent were first-time attendees. Thirty-two percent were from the West Coast, and 16 percent were international attendees ? up from 10 percent the past two years. Records indicate that 83 percent of the attendees either make or influence the purchasing decision.

?It?s clear that our effort to expand the reach of the show for both attendees and exhibitors was successful,? said John Catalano, show manager from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. ?It exceeded the expectations of the partner organizations, and we?ve committed to return in 2012.?

Future show dates and locations:
November 15 – 18, 2009 in Chicago and November 2 – 4, 2010 in Atlanta.

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