Give it a look
Richard L. Dunn, Editor -- Plant Engineering, 8/1/2001
For as long as I've been an editor, I've heard the complaints about lack of time and funding to attend trade shows. If it wasn't a time crunch, it was a money crunch. Or vice versa.
And then there was the approval issue: "I'm not sending people off to [you name the city] on the off chance that they'll discover or learn something useful." Or, "I could never get permission to go there."
Well, now through the "magic" of the Internet, we may have come up with an answer to those objections—the virtual trade show.
Imagine being able to wander around the show floor, visit booths, check out new products, and sit in on conference sessions without leaving the plant. Imagine sending your entire staff or team to a show without any expenses.
That's the dream that gave birth to the first SupplyChainLinkExpo to be held October 17 and 18. This free event will include a broad range of events similar to what you would expect to find at a traditional trade show: exhibits, guest speakers, industry roundtables, networking, product information, industry mall—even a "show daily" newsletter.
The SupplyChainLinkExpo is being produced by the Cahners Supply Chain/OEM Group in cooperation with Reed Exhibition Co., producer of National Manufacturing week. PLANT ENGINEERING is among the 10 magazines in the Cahners Supply Chain/OEM Group.
As part of this groundbreaking event, PLANT ENGINEERING will present a conference session on "Enabling Distributed Generation and Demand Response with Enterprise Energy Management Systems" and a roundtable discussion on "What To Do About Electric Power Quality Problems"—two important topics in these days of uncertain power.
"Attendance" at the Expo is free. All you have to do is register at supplychainlinkexpo.com, and then log in during the event. And if you miss a conference session, you can revisit it from the archives.
So, we'd like you to give this concept a shot. Check it out. Nose around. Ask some of the other folks in your plant to take a look. Then, we'd welcome your feedback on what you think about it. We hope it will answer some of those old objections about going to trade shows.
For more information, register now at supplychainlinkexpo.com. Then on October 17 and 18, log in and give it a look.
