by Jeanne Brei

We begin this week in the Midwest as McCormick Place in Chicago is gearing up for the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS), the largest and longest-running industry tradeshow in the Western Hemisphere. This year, more than 1,272 exhibitors from the manufacturing industry will display their products  and productivity solutions over 1.3 million net square feet of show floor from Sept. 12-17. IMTS 2022 will be the 33rd edition of the manufacturing technology show—the last time it was held in 2018, it hosted the highest number of exhibiting companies ever (2,563) and was the largest in number of registrations (129,415) and in net square feet of exhibit space (1,424,232) at the McCormick Place complex. IMTS is held every even-numbered year in Chicago and attracts buyers and sellers from 117 countries.

New to the show this year, they will be addressing the current supply chain crisis with the inaugural IMTS Smarter Sourcing Symposium, presented by IMTS and The Onshoring Project. On tap: discussing tools and tactics to create more profitable domestic sourcing using lean and agile suppliers. The symposium will run 8:30-11 a.m. on Sept. 16, and is part of the conference agenda at IMTS.

“The lessons of the last two years prove we need to expand our domestic manufacturing base and reevaluate supply chain response capabilities,” says Ryan Kelly (pictured right), general manager of the Association For Manufacturing Technology’s San Francisco Tech Lab (AMT owns and produces IMTS). “The Smarter Sourcing Symposium will show OEMs, tier suppliers, contract manufacturers, and sourcing/purchasing agents how working with lean domestic suppliers makes a positive business impact and improves resiliency.”

This supply chain symposium is a result of The Onshoring Project, a collaboration of leadership from AMT, Gardner Business Media, IndustryWeek, the Reshoring Initiative, HELPFUL, and the Aerospace and Specialty Metals Group (ASMG). Registration for the symposium includes an exhibit hall pass for IMTS 2022, breakfast, and complimentary subscriptions to Modern Machine Shop and IndustryWeek magazines.

Smarter Sourcing Symposium panel moderator Ryan Kelly has been the GM of AMT’s San Francisco Tech Lab since 2019 and is the host of the Smart(er) Shop video series on IMTS+. Prior to that, he was a senior product manager at Xometry, a leading AI-enabled marketplace for on-demand manufacturing that enables buyers to efficiently source on-demand manufactured parts and that empowers sellers of manufacturing services to grow their businesses.

“The conference program, investor forum, and specialty events for women in manufacturing, job shops, and additive manufacturing expand the appeal of IMTS 2022 to senior levels within an organization,” says Kelly. “The solutions to supply chain disruptions and chronic labor shortages can only be solved through new ways of doing business and applying advanced manufacturing technology. Spending a few days in the exhibit halls and conference rooms at IMTS 2022 will be the smartest time investment anyone in manufacturing can make.”

NTSA Invisible Industry Tour Heads to Philadelphia Sept. 15-17

Meanwhile, Philadelphia will be hosting the Democratic Municipal Officials (DMO) National Advisory Board Retreat from Sept. 13-15, Temple University is installing its next university president and the National Trade Show Alliance (NTSA) mobile exhibit will be continuing its Invisible Industry Tour. The NTSA will be hosting DMO attendees, Temple University students and many others to introduce them to the tradeshow, convention, meeting and live events industry—stressing its economic importance to cities across America as well as highlighting the myriad types of employment available within the industry to the next generation workforce.

The Invisible Industry Tour’s 49-foot Triune Quad-X Mobile Trailer will be parked on the South Apron of Philadelphia’s City Hall in Center City, from Sept. 15-17. Located at 1400 John F Kennedy Blvd, it is a quick two-minute walk to the Philadelphia Convention Center (less than 420 feet away).

DMO, the largest network of elected officials within the Democratic Party, represents 40,000 mayors, city council members, and other elected leaders across the U.S. The annual DMO Summer Retreat gives business, labor, and policy groups who work with cities to connect with the most engaged and influential community leaders from across the U.S. The Retreat features group discussion and one-on-one sessions between local elected officials and Advisory Board partners.

DMO attendees are scheduled to visit the trailer on Sept. 15 and will be immersed in interactive presentations, tour partner Captello’s gamifications, exhibits and time-lapse videos created by industry associations, designers, builders, unions, support services and more, showing the work that goes into producing a tradeshow, including setup to teardown and behind-the-scenes in proposals and design.

The NTSA is collaborating with many industry veterans across the entire spectrum of the 6.6 million jobs that are involved in the live events industry to create a library of knowledge—consisting of 20-30 minute videos—that will help train the next generation of trade show workers. By taking that mobile exhibit on the road for the next year, it’s hoped that the industry’s anonymity can finally be ended by introducing the work opportunities that the live events industry can provide to the next generation.

The NTSA is especially grateful to tour partners Triune Specialty Trailers who are supplying the 49-foot Triune Quad-X Mobile Trailer; Brewco Marketing Group (BMG) supplying the driver, tour manager and logistics; and Captello, who is supplying CRM, marketing automation, lead capture and gamification software.

Those who work in the tradeshow/live events industry are welcome to visit the mobile exhibit as well as join the NTSA for free by visiting https://nationaltradeshowalliance.org/membership.