PIR Sustainable Construction Magazine - Plantworx Exhibitor Day

More than 150 delegates gathered at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire, on Wednesday 25^th May, for the PLANTWORX 2013 exhibitor launch day, hosted by the shows organisers, the CEA (Construction Equipment Association). More than 100 individual companies were represented from every sector of the construction industry, including the leading brands, which have supported the show since its conception.

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Adrian Hall from JCB, Glyn Stanton from Merlo, Alan Batty from Bomag and Bob Williams from Belle, amongst other representatives, addressed the audience on why they think the industry should support the forthcoming biennial construction event.

During the presentation delegates were taken on a virtual tour of the new site (subject to change), available stand sizes and costing’s were announced too – what particularly impressed the guests was that there was a limit on the size of stand one could book – which they felt was a fair way of allocating space, preventing those with huge marketing budgets to dominate the event.

PLANTWORX also revealed that there would be a ‘dig’ and a ‘non-dig’ area, allowing maximum demo for the earthmoving machinery and the same opportunity for the companies that demonstrate – but above ground. Glyn Stanton, Merlo’s general sales manager, has already requested space in the ‘non-dig’ area and was eagerly filling in his provisional booking form for his space requirements during lunch!

Prior to lunch, delegates were taken via coach to see the actual site itself; this brought to life the ‘virtual’ tour they had seen earlier.

The key message was that this new show was an event – for the industry by the industry – and team work and consultation with exhibitors will be key to its success. Andy Hair managing director, Northern Track, was at the event, he said “The UK badly needs a dedicated plant show after the demise of SED and the team at PLANTWORX appear to be very committed to providing what the industry itself wants from a show. This was very ably demonstrated at the Stoneleigh Park open day yesterday where the finer details of the show structure were revealed to us as potential exhibitors and we were given the chance to ‘walk the ground’ and talk to key members of the team about finer details of infrastructure and planning.

I was happy to note that the PLANTWORX organisers really do seem committed to talking to potential exhibitors and taking on board what they want the show to provide, I’m hopeful that this will continue in the coming months and we will be returning our booking form and securing our space for what promises to be a great first show in 2013.”

The buzz in the room was really encouraging and with Thwaites, Bomag, Manitou, JCB, Belle, Takeuchi, JCB, Case, Ammann, and more than ten other major manufacturers and suppliers already committed to exhibiting at the show, visitors were thinking about how much provisional space to book – not whether or not they should book! The PLANTWORX team has requested that the provisional space requirement form to be returned by the end of June this year. This will enable, Mike Coleman, operations director, to draw a more accurate plan of the show. Probst Handling Equipment, RDS Technology, Merlo and a number of other companies have already handed over their space requirement forms.

Andy Munford, managing director of Shindaiwa confirmed that he had put his application form in the post today with his requirements, he reported, “ I was very impressed with yesterday’s presentation the team put in a great deal of work and the professionalism of the team and the great thought behind the exhibitions concept was apparent. All of my questions on the site tour were answered too. I am very much looking forward to being part of this new event.”

Simon Frere-Cook, PLANTWORX event director was equally as pleased on the success of the day, he said, “There is no doubt that the delegates left with a very clear impression that PLANTWORX will be the event that they are all looking for and the presentation that we gave should have given them plenty of confidence in the team's ability to deliver it - indeed the staff from Stoneleigh Park were very complimentary about everything yesterday.”

The show will span 100,000sqm’s and will be an all-action event with more working demonstration areas than at any other previous or current UK show. The PLANTWORX team had to expand the show prior to its ‘official launch’ due the high demand for space – which is an excellent indication that the industry as a whole supports this event.

Plant editor, and experienced operator, Nick Johnson is keen to be involved in the ‘working group’ for the event and has a vision on how the demonstration areas should be presented, he said, “The key to the success of PLANTWORX will be the provision of really meaningful machine demonstrations. Emphasis needs to be placed on showing new and interesting products working productively in realistic ‘site settings’. PLANTWORX needs to attract not only plant owners and operators but also end users such as site managers and supervisors and realistically present many different ways of using machines (and attachments) to carry out diverse site tasks more productively and safely.”

The PLANTWORX team will be continuing to work with exhibitors and progressing with the show, incorporating new ideas and innovations. Although the next event is not scheduled until September of this year (watch this space), PLANTWORX will be updating the web site, Twitter and Facebook regularly. Visit www.plantworx.com and register to receive updates.