In response to audience and industry demand, three leading show organizers are gearing up to launch two new trade shows for the food and beverage and the plastics processing industries next year. Take a look!

SIAL America

Leading global event organizers Comexposium and Emerald have formed a strategic partnership to launch the first large-scale, generalist food show for the $1.5 trillion U.S. food and beverage market: SIAL America. Set to debut March 22-24, 2022 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, it will co-locate with Emerald’s International Pizza Expo and International Artisan Bakery Expo.  

“Comexposium U.S. is delighted to continue the development of its footprint with the launch of SIAL America,” said Steve Corrick, Comexposium CEO, North America. “Between our partners and ourselves, we plan to create a new and distinctive offering.”

Designed to serve as an international business hub for the entire food and beverage industry, the event will connect food and drink manufacturers with retailers, importers, exporters, distributors and wholesalers of food products. Its extensive product categories will include organic and wellness; beverages; grocery; sweets and bakery; fruits and vegetables; seafood; dairy products; frozen foods; snack foods and meats. 

“Not only will SIAL America deliver the opportunity to see the full gamut of what’s currently available on the market, and in which direction the food industry is headed, it also complements our existing co-location of International Pizza Expo and International Artisan Bakery Expo in Las Vegas and will expand our product and service offering as well as our reach,” explained Pete Lachapelle, vice president, global brand director of Emerald’s Food Group. “ 

The new partnership is intended to leverage the strengths of Emerald’s live events footprint in the U.S. and Comexposium’s SIAL global food brand and network, the world’s largest of food and drink trade fairs. A 50-year-old generalist food show, SIAL’s portfolio includes 10 annual international food events in France, Canada, the UAE, India, China, Algeria and Indonesia. Combined, the shows attract more than 700,000 attendees and 16,000 exhibitors from 200 countries each year.  

“After establishing robust business platforms in Paris, Shanghai, Montreal and many more cities around the world, we plan to bring to life in Las Vegas a new international food exhibition to enable comprehensive sourcing of new products,” said Nicolas Trentesaux, SIAL Network Global CEO. “We look forward to welcoming guests to share our vision, and spark new and exciting connections in the food industry,”  

Harnessing SIAL’s philosophy to include all food categories in the same event while driving solutions to tomorrow’s food challenges, SIAL America will take this philosophy to the next level as it aspires to become the U.S.’s top large-scale food and beverage event.

“This partnership underscores the ever-increasing importance of creating a single event for the food industry,” said Emerald Executive Vice President Jessica Blue. “Emerald and Comexposium share a vision of providing new opportunities for our customers to grow and innovate, which is very exciting for our industry as a whole.” 

PTXPO

Manufacturing publisher and event producer Gardner Business Media Inc., along with media brands Plastics Technology, MoldMaking Technology and Additive Manufacturing, are launching a new trade show for the North American plastics processing market next year in the greater Chicago area.

Set to debut March 29-31, 2022 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois, the biannual Plastics Technology Expo will feature equipment, machinery, solutions, materials and technology, and extensive learning and networking opportunities.

 While the Midwest is the hub of plastics manufacturing, there has been no major event in the area since 2009. Show officials say PTXPO will target a critical and vastly underserved region in plastics processing. 

They added that Gardner’s research revealed that the Chicago area was the preferred region for an event of this type, particularly in light of the current boom times for plastics processing.  

“Our editorial team is in regular contact with processors, and time and again we hear about how busy they are,” said Ryan Delahanty, publisher of the Plastics Technology and MoldMaking Technology brands. “This is supported by our regular monthly surveys of our subscribers done by our Gardner Intelligence market-research team.”

He continued, “March and April were both record-breaking months for plastics processors and plans to invest in infrastructure, a resurgence in housing and a bounce back in automotive bode well for the future of our industry, as does the amazing things that processors are doing to make their products more sustainable.” 

According to Gardner officials, its market intelligence team conducted several rounds of audience research before announcing the show launch. In that research, 86% of subscribers to Plastics Technology or MoldMaking Technology magazine either agreed or strongly agreed that “a major U.S. plastics exhibition featuring the latest equipment and technology demonstrations” was essential to their professional development. 

Additionally, more than 62% of survey respondents said they would attend a trade show once a year or more often, and fewer than 7% said they would attend a trade show only once every three years.

Delahanty also pointed to a need among suppliers of primary processing machinery, auxiliary equipment, molds/tooling and materials to get face-to-face again with customers and prospects.  

“Suppliers have responded remarkably to challenges imposed by the pandemic by holding virtual open houses, webinars, online customer training, and the like,” Delahanty said. “There will always be a place for those technologies, but at the same [time], I think everyone recognizes that there has been a missing component in the sales-communication channel: the face-to-face component. PTXPO is aimed to fill that void.” 

PTXPO is also positioned to complement the events portfolio already established by Gardner’s major show brands: the Molding Conference, the Extrusion Conference, Amerimold – all collocating at the DES Convention Center Sept. 21-23, and the Additive Manufacturing Conference and Expo, set for Oct. 12-14 at the Duke Energy Convention Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.

After 2022, the show will take place every spring but will skip years when the Plastics Industry Association’s NPE: The Plastics Show takes place. 

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