Manufacturing Community Reconnects at IMTS 2022
Coming together at IMTS 2022 created new collaborations, partnerships and networking opportunities for the manufacturing community as it reached a new level of engagement with more than 86,000 registrants.
Edited by Angela Osborne
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Photo Credit: Gardner Business Media
After four years apart, the manufacturing community came together at IMTS – The International Manufacturing Technology Show 2022 for a showstopping event Sept. 12-17 at Chicago’s McCormick Place.
The event reached a total registration of 86,307, including 11,715 students, and featured 1,212,806 million square feet of exhibit space representing 1,816 exhibitors and 1,603 booths. The North American visitor-to-exhibitor ratio increased by more than 10% compared to 2018’s record-breaking show, reaffirming the need to meet in person.
Four years of technology advancements focused heavily on addressing workforce shortages and supply chain issues. “What was most gratifying for the industry and the country was the scope of commerce taking place as visitors sought out and found key technologies and productivity solutions to move their businesses forward,” says Douglas K. Woods, president of AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology, which owns and produces IMTS.
At IMTS 2022, the manufacturing community achieved something that hasn’t been done since World War II —it brought the industry back together after a worldwide disruption. “We proved our resiliency, but we achieved much more,” says Peter R. Eelman, AMT’s chief experience officer. “The digital technologies and other new products at this show aren’t just advanced — they are accessible, inclusive and ready to be implemented by small- and medium-sized businesses regardless of their workforce composition.”
The show attracted 7,647 people to its educational and networking events. The IMTS Women Make Manufacturing Move specialty program’s three events attracted more than 1,213 people, representing 400 companies and 52 countries. Three IMTS Job Shops specialty programs attracted 293 people and covered topics such as taking shops digital, the Top Shops award winners and the Top Shops benchmarking program, which was presented by AMT, Modern Machine Shop magazine and Additive Manufacturing media by Gardner Business Media.
The inaugural IMTS Investor Forum — powered by AMT, featured curated tours on additive manufacturing, digital technology, machining and automation, and was designed to help the investment community understand the opportunities in manufacturing.
“With the number of innovative products hitting the market now — cutting across the entire swath of automation and digital technologies that change the way we manufacture parts — we’re in a period of time that will not be paralleled again for decades,” says David Burns, forum presenter and principal/founder at Global Business Advisory Services. Burns notes that manufacturing technology orders per sale continued to increase from 2019 through 2022 and they will continue to accelerate as companies use technology to compensate for a smaller labor force.
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