{"id":64831,"date":"2016-10-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-11T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lantechweb.wpengine.com\/blog\/maximizing-your-pack-expo-trip-in-an-internet-world\/"},"modified":"2020-08-31T10:16:05","modified_gmt":"2020-08-31T14:16:05","slug":"maximizing-your-pack-expo-trip-in-an-internet-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lantech.com\/r2\/blog\/maximizing-your-pack-expo-trip-in-an-internet-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Maximizing Your Pack Expo Trip in an Internet World"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Back in the day…<\/h2>\n

There was a time when many of us in the industry headed to PackExpo to “see if there’s anything new.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\"2016_PACK_EXPO_International_Logo.jpg\"Back when there was a “Lakeside” building and a North Hall that was an exhausting but feasible task. A company’s buying team could cover the show, stopping at any booth which seemed that it might have a pertinent product.<\/p>\n

The show visit was built around the goal of learning about machines and discovering creative new consumable solutions.<\/p>\n

In the age of a shelf full of green Thomas Register directories, that made sense.<\/p>\n

But a couple key things have changed. First, while many industrial trade shows have stagnated, Pack Expo has grown…enormously. The biannual show in Chicago is projected to fill more than 1.2 million net square feet, and trade show industry experts cite PMMI’s maverick approach<\/a> for it’s success. It’s big enough that its really impractical to just walk it.<\/p>\n

Of course, the other change is the internet. And while you can’t necessarily gauge the fit and finish of a machine online, you can discover new vendors and even entirely new categories of solutions with a few keystrokes. So the role of a trade show has shifted.<\/p>\n

But what’s the key to maximizing the event?<\/p>\n

Preparation is the key<\/h2>\n

While you can research specs and search for alternative suppliers online, you can’t as easily engage in the kind of serious conversation that’s so important to selecting the best vendor match or even discovering creative new solutions to problems.<\/p>\n

Trade shows make those higher level goals feasible. In a compressed space and time, you have assembled at your disposal many of the top minds in your field.<\/p>\n

You probably know who the thought leaders are, and you know what your challenges are. Map the former and clearly understand the latter, then work the show.<\/p>\n

For instance, let’s say you’ve got a persistent problem with workforce turnover in your end of line packaging. You could head to the show and set out to find the easiest pallet wrapper to set up. Or you could find a staffing agency that specializes in packaging related jobs, hoping that they’ll bring you the perfect workers.<\/p>\n

The better solution might be to define the problem:<\/p>\n