Trade groups may co-locate meetings

Staff -- Industrial Distribution, 8/1/2005

The talk that some organizations may be looking seriously at joining forces to "co-locate" their conventions and trade shows is being heard more and more. Brian Kundinger, president of the Fluid Power Distributors Assn., told members at their recent annual convention that FPDA was looking seriously at co-locating future meetings.

FPDA was planning to meet with representatives of the Power Transmission Distributors Assn., the National Electronics Distributors Assn., and the Assn. for High Technology Distribution to discuss co-locating options.

Co-locating has been happening more frequently, and some expo and convention organizers say it will continue to grow as a pragmatic way of cutting down on organizers' expenses as well as travel costs and time for attendees.

"We see it happening all the time," observed Kel Marsden-Kish, industry vice president with Reed Exhibitions, which organizes trade shows. "Look at the way the U.S. manufacturing economy has changed. People's biggest concern is how they can compete globally, and people are having to do more with less...So for someone to come out to an event, it has to be really worth their time. By associations co-locating, it's giving people more things to see in the time they are out [of the office.]"

Among the shows that have announced co-locating plans are the Assembly Technology Expo, which will be co-located with the International Robots and Vision Show this September at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Chicago. Admission to one show gets an attendee into the other at no extra charge.

"It's a more complementary [event]," Marsden-Kish explained. "It makes sense to have these two events together because the typical attendees are engineers."