This year’s Pack Expo — the international packaging and processing trade show held earlier this month at Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center — shattered all-time attendance records and is being hailed by show organizers as the most successful ever.
More than 48,000 people attended the trade show, a whopping 6.5% increase over 2012, according to Jim Pittas, senior vice president for the Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, the group that produced the show.
“Pack Expo International 2014 was definitely a success,” Pittas said. “Exhibitors sold machines right off the show floor and collected high quality leads from the steady flow of attendees.”
Pack Expo ran from Nov. 2 to 5 and was held in conjunction with and simultaneous to Pharma Expo 2014. This year, there were 2,352 exhibitors, an increase of more than 19% over 2012.
Upcoming Pack Expo trade shows include Pack Expo East, to be held February 16 to 18 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, in Philadelphia, and Pharma Expo and Pack Expo West to be held in Las Vegas in 2015. Many companies are already getting ready for those trade shows.
“Exhibitors begin planning their strategy for the next Pack Expo almost immediately after the close of the previous year’s show, and they need to know they’ll get a strong return on investment,” Pittas said.