| GUEST BLOGGER | STRENGTH of STEEL
Participants bemoaning quieter aisles at AISTech 2018 are missing the point—and maybe the opportunity, says Camron Ghanemi, vice president of Ace World Companies.
It’s unwise to judge a book by its cover, as last month’s (May) AISTech proved. What with lessened footfall, the absence of a couple of major players from the sector, and perhaps a lack of vibrancy for which the event has become known, a layman might conclude that the latest Iron & Steel Technology Conference and Exposition, hosted by the Association for Iron & Steel Technology (AIST), fell short of expectations at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
For me, it reiterated the point—the steel market is on fire right now.
Picture a steel mill or steelworks: an overhead crane is transporting ladles filled with molten iron; sparks are flying; it’s hot, bustling, relentless, high- pressured work. Bosses are demanding more of the facility than it can keep up with and the architects can’t deliver plans for the expansion project fast enough. Te board is in a sweat over limited land space for the new mill and a major recruitment drive is underway. Finding operators for the new cranes is just one problem.
So what do buying decision makers do when a steel expo—even the biggest in the sector—comes around? Tey don’t think now’s a good time to peruse some exhibits and spend a week in Philly. Now isn’t the time to network, spend time with suppliers, or consider the equipment that might be needed for an overhaul down the road. Instead, they deal with the matters of urgency right in from of them, the sure signs of a marketplace well and truly in boom mode.
Sideshow
Tat’s not to say AISTech 2018 was a waste of time. It wasn’t. Nor is it to say that meaningful engagement, education, and dialog didn’t take place. Because it did. But the quieter aisles—Tuesday was even slower than Monday for the first time in my memory—certainly
gave a sideshow feel to the occasion, as though the main event was taking place elsewhere. And that was just the case; numerous contacts told me that they simply couldn’t spare the time to attend this year and were sending someone in their place or skipping it altogether.
I had a number of conversations with fellow exhibitors during the event and I couldn’t understand their logic. While they were looking at the space in the aisles as missed opportunities to promote their product, I was thinking of all the people out there who might have been at the show that were
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SUMMER 2018
INDUSTRIAL LIFTING EXCHANGE
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