Flashback to the last ProMat

Organisers project that the ProMat 2009 trade show from 12-15 January in Chicago will feature more than 800 materials handling- and forklift-related exhibitions, in excess of 100 educational sessions and multiple networking opportunities.

In showcasing materials handling products and services, ProMat exhibitors offer a range of manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, logistics and information technology solutions for the supply chain.

Among services, ProMat 2009 will offer an international buyer program that can link interested buyers and sellers through a business centre in the show hall. Also, a knowledge centre will be located on the show floor.

As ProMat keynote moderator, Forrest Sawyer is slated to lead a discussion about "Building the Workforce of the Future." Sawyer is a documentary producer and media strategist and former US television broadcasting network journalist and news anchor.

Sawyer will guide a panel of four or five experts. They will talk about how the world's workforce is changing and evaluate the impact of baby-boom generation retirements that may cause a decline in working population through 2025. Members of the panel will be announced in the northern autumn.

The trade association Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA) of Charlotte, North Carolina, sponsors alternating biennial trade events such as ProMat 2009 and NA 2008. The latter occurred in April in Cleveland, Ohio.

MHIA, which has represented the material handling and logistics industry since 1945, says ProMat 2009 in the south exposition hall at Chicago's McCormick Place will be the largest international materials handling and logistics show and conference held in the US next year.

MHIA predicts exhibitors will occupy a total of at least 300,000 square feet (27,000 sqm) in January. Initially, about 350 exhibitors reserved 224,700 net square feet (20,223 sqm) of ProMat 2009 floor space at a November 2007 space-draw in Chicago. Toyota Material Handling USA of Irvine, California selected the first booth of the draw.

Materials handling and logistics equipment and systems manufacturers, integrators, consultants, publishers and third party logistics providers form the core of MHIA's membership base, which is aligned to numerous product-specific sections, councils and affiliates.