S.P.I.: The Plastics Industry Trade Association moved its triennial trade show, N.P.E., to Orlando after four decades at Chicago’s McCormick Place. As the show prepares to wrap up tomorrow at the Orange County Convention Center, organizers say it’s clear the move paid off: Attendance is up nearly 30 percent from 2009, with more than 50,000 people from more than 100 countries walking the floor to check out the latest in plastics processing equipment and materials.
“Exhibitors had started to slow down on the number of machines they were bringing due to costs,” said Gene Sanders, the association's senior vice president of trade shows and conferences. “When you bring these machines in and you are in a city like Chicago, you have to use union labor to bring it in and to assemble it. The cost of that is more expensive. [In Orlando] it’s about 25 percent cheaper for the general labor. And as a right-to-work state, you can do all of that yourself. If you can’t afford to bring machines, what’s the point?”
The equipment filling 920,000 square feet of exhibit space uses a substantial amount of electricity—as much as 80 megawatts at one time—and was another factor in the move to Orlando. “We were able to work out a package for utilities and that allowed us to charge per square foot,” Sanders said. "So the most an exhibitor will pay by our rules is $4.15 per square foot. They can bring unlimited machines and get unlimited power drops." Organizers also explored moving the show to Las Vegas, but Sanders said that city declined because it could not accommodate the event’s power needs. He added, “They didn’t want a show that took up 20 days, which is what we use from move-in to move-out.”
The final decision on the move came after the association analyzed costs for attendees to fly, sleep, park, eat, exhibit, or attend in Chicago versus Orlando and found an average savings of about 19 percent in Orlando. Sanders said organizers plan to return to the Orange County Convention Center in 2015.
In addition to the trade show that occupies both buildings of the convention center, the event includes more than 700 education sessions. Buyers come from a variety of industries such as automotive, consumer electronics, packaging, medical, and athletic equipment. Sanders said a person who walks every exhibit aisle and education area would cover more than 400 miles.
