MACH 2024 is just around the corner with the exhibition kicking off from the 15th to the 19th of April, so MTD invited James Fudge from the MTA to the studio to give us an update on the UK’s premier manufacturing exhibition. With less than six months to the exhibition, the anticipation is building.
Speaking with MTDCNC, James Fudge says: “After EMO, many of our exhibitors can work out what equipment they will have on their stands at MACH 2024 – as it will have been showcased and tested on the European market. With Easter falling on the last day of March, the opening of MACH 2024 will be after the Easter break – this will be good for both exhibitor and visitor numbers.”
Looking forward to the event and discussing what will be new, James tells us: “One of the things we are looking at this time, is why do our visitors come to the show? We get a lot of visitors who say they only come to MACH, rather than any other UK exhibition. This is because they want to look at new technology and equipment and find out what is going on in the industry. Additionally, engineers are trying to find solutions, so what we’ve said is how can we signpost that in the main areas that people come to. For example, tooling accounts for 26% of our visitors and automation is a large part of our visitors requirements. We’ve always had automation throughout the show, but we want to put knowledge hubs in place so visitors can identify what they need based on their particular business. The knowledge hubs will signpost visitors to other exhibitors in the show that are showing that type of technology, they can go and get the answers.”
Expanding on the knowledge hubs, James says: “They are independently run in conjunction with the MTA and a lot of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult Centres. If you go to the additive manufacturing knowledge hub or the automation knowledge hub – they will be run by the MTC. The tooling knowledge hub is being run by the AMRC and we will also looking at an energy reduction hub. The idea is that you go along to the hub and there will be some examples of the different types of technology in that area.”
Discussing the return of exhibitions after the Covid pandemic, James continues: “We opened sales for MACH 2024 at the 2022 show, and we came away with more bookings than we’ve ever done before. What was interesting about the last show is that visitors and exhibitors were saying ‘I haven’t seen you for four years’, this is quite interesting as some people only ever see each other at MACH. MACH is not a five day show, it’s a two-year cycle and the show is critical in keeping those relationships alive over the two-year cycle.”
Alluding to new exhibitors and updates for the show, James continues: “We have quite a few new companies exhibiting at MACH following visits to the show in 2022. It’s also fascinating to see the technology change from the same exhibitors from one exhibition to the next. It shows the speed of change in the market. I also think the knowledge hubs a large part of our show, as will our seminar speakers talking about the rate of change.”
Commenting upon the Engineering Supply Chain Show running concurrently with MACH, James adds: “There was a soft launch last year and this year it’s going to have its own hall, so it will sit in Hall 7 as a three-day show. It is the only co-located show with MACH and this exhibition is for showcasing the UK supply chain. So, companies have to be UK-based and it’s about really looking at the capability and capacity of the UK. This is because what we find is a lot of big companies come to our show such as OEMs in the auto and aero industries, their procurement teams turn up but sometimes they are not looking to invest in new equipment they are looking for capacity – that is what we are trying to showcase. We have the community in place for one week, why wouldn’t we do that?”
The MTA and the MACH exhibition is renowned for its MACH dinner, discussing this James says: “As we have the whole manufacturing community and all of the MTA team there, it makes perfect sense to have the MTA dinner at the event. This will be held on Thursday evening at the Vox, which is on-site of the NEC, so people can walk straight to the dinner from the exhibition – and tickets are available for engineers to make the most of the networking in a less formal setting.”
