image: Domotex blog
Well it is almost time for Santa to leverage his inspiring supply chain and pull off the most impressive display of logistics seen, well, since last Christmas. It also means that we are within a month of the hectic trade show season for key flooring personnel across the globe. Here are the top 3 flooring shows of Q1 2012 and a brief commentary of each.
Domotex Hannover – January 14 – 17, 2012 at Convention Center in Hannover, Germany
This show has approx 38,000 visitors from 87 different countries. Trade show promotion says that 94% of 2011 visitors believed it was an important enough show that they will return again in 2012. Leading trends that often make it to America the following year can be seen here. Some great German and Belgium beers available later in the afternoon.
Surfaces – January 24 – 26, 2012 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, NV
http://www.surfaces.com/attendee/show-information.aspx
Vegas Baby! Get lots of sleep in advance, because if you’ve never been to this show it’s a lot of long days and nights. If you are active in the North American industry it’s hard to not be at this show. Certainly the North American industry flagship show to kick off the year.
Domotex Asia / ChinaFloor – March 27 – 29, 2012
http://www.domotexasiachinafloor.com/en/
Largest trade show for flooring in Asia. Visitors in 2011 equaled 39,343. This is personally my most productive show as I save a lot of travel time by arranging a full schedule of meetings with out of town factory owners.
How to prepare for the shows
All 3 shows are busiest the first 2 days. The 3rd day is usually 1/3 the traffic (ie: stats for Domotex Asia were 16,000 per day visists for day 1 and 2, but only 6,667 on day 3). So if you have the energy to stay for day 3 you probably can get around much easier. All the shows on Day 1 get very busy. Register in advance to avoid long lines opening morning.
Finally, I suggest whenever possible to arrange your meetings in advance of the show… it is difficult to connect with key people if you randomly walk up to booths. At all three shows be prepared to get creative on your meeting spots… every single person has the same idea as you where to meet, so avoid saying “lets met at the coffee shop in Hall X”. Good luck!
Domotex Hannover, Surfaces, Domotex Asia – Trade shows 2012 is a post from: Building Materials and Flooring With Rob Banks. Rob is Co-Founder of BuildDirect, the world's leading online source for building materials including wood flooring, tile and stone, decking, roofing, siding, sustainable building and more. Rob writes on a variety of topics including procurement, intertnational travel, building products, and building industry trade shows.
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