On Tuesday, May 22, a group of seven distributor CEOs gathered in Chicago to provide input to AMT staff members to improve the IMTS experience for their staffs and for their customers.Peter Eelman, AMT Vice President, Exhibitions & Communications, stated, “This was the first meeting since the merger where former AMTDA members could work jointly with the AMT staff to improve our products and services. We really wanted to hear their ideas and suggestions on IMTS.”
Distributor CEOs included Ron Mager from MSI, AMT Co-Chairman; Dave Smith from CJ Smith Machinery; Terry Iverson of Iverson and Co.; Don Baskin of Ellison Technologies; John Murphy of Morris Midwest; Rod Vestal from Hartwig Inc. and Chuck Anderson from Anstar Corp. Pete Borden from the Distribution Working Group also attended.
Peter Eelman, John Krisko and Michelle Edmonson provided background on the history, statistics, visitor profiles, marketing, new labor rules, logistics and many other facts, figures and trends of the largest manufacturing show in North America. The new show partnerships with other organizations and the conference tracks were of particular interest along with the Emerging Technology Center (ETC) and the daily speakers who will be featured between the north and south halls each morning before the opening of the north and south halls.
The group made suggestions about improving registration, hotels, transportation logistics, lunch service, cell phone coverage, finding customers and more meeting spaces. Marketing materials will be made available to distributors to send to customers based on the theme of finding cost saving and money making ideas.
Ron Mager commented, “I was pleased with the depth of the information and the collaborative tone of the meeting. There was a lot of experience in that room.”
The AMT staff created several action items and began work on these this week with the general contractor, GES Corp., and with others in Chicago and at McCormick Place. Stay tuned for further information about the show and “Don’t Miss It!”