News English — event review

MHI 2024 Spring Meetup The Material Handling Industry association (MHI, website) arrange a number of member meetings in addition to trade shows Modex and Promat. Member meetings are held in the Spring and Autumn meetups - called Spring Meetup and the Annual Conference.  MHI's 2024 Spring Meeting was held on home turf (for MHI) in Charlotte, North Carolina, US in lovely summery weather (just below 30 degrees Celsius in the sun). Venue was moved from the 2023 location in the Westin hotel to Charlotte Convention Centre due to refurbishment. This was no problem and the Convention Centre is conveniently located just across the road from...

NRF2024 was a full return to normal following the pandemic. Visitor numbers back to full force. Very few if any at all exhibitor cancellations. New food innovation zone and some exciting MHE displays. Overall, a lack of excitement despite all the AI talk.

A review of STIQ Robotics networking event on Nov 8, 2023

Fabulous attendance at the STIQ Robotics #4 networking event. Eight presentations with robot exhibits.

ARE WE FINALLY BACK TO NORMAL? The 2022 NRF show was a dud with plenty of exhibitor + visitor cancellations due to Covid restrictions. This year's edition was pretty much back to normal and visitor numbers felt as if they hit pre-pandemic levels. Yours truly in front of the entrance hall at Javits Center (picture from the new wing). Filling up pretty quick down there. The perspective is probably a bit deceptive (or my camera is bad), but there was no shortage of attendees for sure. A LACK OF INNOVATIVE IDEAS/CONCEPTS Our immediate impression of the show was a certain lack of...