The shows were the largest gathering in North America since 2008.

About 120,000 registered attendees visited the CONEXPO-CON/AGG and IFPE 2011 expositions on 22-26 March in Las Vegas.

Held at the Las Vegas Convention Centre, the shows were the largest gathering in North America since 2008 for the construction, construction materials and fluid power/power transmission/motion control industries.

Mike Haberman, chairman of the CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2011 management committee and president of Gradall Industries, says: "There was a tremendous upbeat feeling at the shows; it was really great to see our industry looking ahead with some enthusiasm after the recession."

International visitors were 24% of the total and came from more than 150 countries. The majority of attendees were key company decision-makers, including 44% with titles of president/owner and vice president/general manager/chief financial officer.

More than 2,400 exhibitors occupied more than 2.34 million net square feet (217,393 sqm) of exhibit space. IFPE was the largest ever and CONEXPO-CON/AGG's exhibit space was the second largest in the show's history.

There were 10 international exhibit pavilions. IFPE had pavilions from China, Italy and Taiwan while CONEXPO-CON/AGG had pavilions from China, Finland, Germany, Italy, Korea, Spain and the United Kingdom.

More than 860 co-located events, educational programs and pre-planned meetings were held with the shows.

The next triennial CONEXPO-CON/AGG and IFPE expositions will be on 18-22 March 2014 at the Las Vegas Convention Centre, Las Vegas, USA.