Platform for the food and beverage industry
The industrial community flocked to Antwerp Expo on March 23 and 24, 2022 for 3 full-scale events: Pumps & Valves, Maintenance and M+R. The 400 exhibitors received no less than 5047 visitors, almost equal to the number of visitors at the last edition before the covid pandemic (2018). Once again doing live business, networking and soaking up innovations clearly paid off.
Our visitor survey showed very high visitor satisfaction. Some 90% gave this edition a score of at least 7.5/10 or more. Face-to-face discussions with suppliers, partners and colleagues felt like an enormous added value. The wide range of technological solutions was also felt to be positive. Good to know is that the number of pre-registrations in the week of the
fair was double that of the last edition in 2018. And yet there was potential to accommodate even more visitors than what we already saw coming. So growth margin is definitely still there, but the first successful step has been taken to upgrade live events again in the coming time.
Our 400 exhibitors also gave massive feedback on the unique combo of 3 industrial trade shows. If 60% took a booking or option for the next editions - either M+R or Maintenance in 2023 or Pumps & Valves in 2024 - it indicates that satisfaction and confidence were high to very high. Some 75% of the exhibitors rated this edition with 7.5/10. Really high taking into account that our sector has been completely idle for about 1.5 years. As an organizer, we also talked plenty with our exhibitors. Update talks that give us insight into what can be improved in the future, so that we get all aspects and actions in top form. We take those lessons learned with us, on the one hand to optimize internally and on the other hand to consult with
new suppliers.
The appetite for gaining knowledge through Teams, Zoom sessions and Webex calls is clearly over. We saw this in the registrations for our 15 live Masterclasses. More than 300 visitors each attended one of our knowledge sessions. A mega success, for example, were the Masterclasses on corrosion, hydrogen, predictive maintenance, wireless and trends in gas detection. Full rooms detected!
Also this edition, BEMAS, the Belgian Maintenance Association asbl, presented the 'BEMAS Digital Innovation Award'. Grizit won with the Smart Greasing Solution. There was also the 'BEMAS Maintenance Innovation Award', which Geysen took home in recognition of their Clean Conveyor Belt. SOA People took the audience award for their Ready4 Asset Management.
For the ie-net expert jury, Skyebase emerged as the winner. They showed their best skills with the Voliro drone that performs wall thickness and coating measurements at height. The audience award went to Elscolab for their Biogas analyzer.
You understand: opportunities, added value and fine moments all around for exhibitors, visitors, partners, media and colleagues. All the feedback has pleased us too. With great drive and confidence, we are ready for Live Trade Fairs 2.0 (sounds much better than post-corona, doesn't it?).
