DESPITE coinciding with the begining of the sub-prime collapse in the USA, attendance at this year’s Ausplas held over four days in early October, attracting some 4,500 registered trade visitors from across Australia and from near neighbour countries, particularly New Zealand.
Of these, 2953 visitors pre-registered and some 1500 registered on arrival.
Ausplas 2008 occupied a total area of 10,000 square metres, down 5% on 2005. This was to be expected given the contraction of the industry generally and the rationalisation of a number of agency agreements in the machinery sector.
Also non-participation by several traditional suppliers in the raw materials sector – a trend that attracted much criticism from Ausplas visitors.
Whilst smaller in area, Ausplas 2008 actually presented more individual exhibitors than 2005 (192 in 2008) of which around 72 companies from overseas were new to the Australian market.
These exhibitors were represented by a number of national pavilions including India, Taiwan, Germany, Austria and China.
Overall most exhibitors have expressed a high level of satisfaction, particularly suppliers of machinery and ancillary equipment. Others in the raw materials sector have been less satisfied.
There have been suggestions that they may be better served by a more focused conference based event and we are looking into that possibility in the future.
Early analysis of the visitor stats indicate a 7.2% increase in overseas visitors, a 21% increase in interstate visitors and the highest ever number of companies represented by visitors (suggesting that although visitor numbers may have been down, more companies actually sent representatives!)
Exhibitors reported strong equipment sales and many look forward to returning in three years time.