FABTECH Signs on to Stay in Atlanta for 2018 and 2022

January 20, 2014

With this year’s show tracking well in Atlanta, the organizers of FABTECH, North America’s largest metal forming, fabricating, finishing and welding event, are sticking with success by signing up to bring the show back to the city in 2018 and 2022.

The Society of Manufacturing Engineer’s FABTECH was last held in Atlanta in 2010, drawing 22,000 attendees from 50 countries, and this year’s event, scheduled Nov. 11-13 at Georgia’s World Congress Center, is expected to draw expect to draw 27,000 attendees and 1,400 exhibitors.

The group signed up for two more years at a meeting held during the International Association of Exhibitions and Events in December in Houston.

“When FABTECH’s attendees return this year, nearly $1.5 billion in new attractions, transportation options and retail developments will have opened in Atlanta,” said William Pate, president and CEO, Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau (ACVB).

He added, “We’re excited to offer so many new experiences for attendees since their last visit.”

Some of that new development includes the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, College Football Hall of Fame and Atlanta Streetcar, which all will have opened since the group last was in town in 2010.

The 2013 show in Chicago broke several records, with 40,667 attendees visiting 1,573 exhibitors to see live equipment demonstrations, compare products side-by-side to find cost-saving solutions at product displays spread across a 650,000 square foot showfloor at McCormick Place.

That was an 11 percent increase in attendance, a 19 percent increase in exhibitors and a 25 percent jump in square footage, compared with the previous event in Chicago in 2011.

FABTECH is co-sponsored by the American Welding Society (AWS), Fabricators & Manufacturers Association International (FMA), Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), Precision Metalforming Association (PMA), and Chemical Coaters Association International (CCAI).

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