“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”
~ Phil Jackson

As we near the opening of our show in just a few weeks, I am reminded how appropriate the above quote applies to PROCESS EXPO. Phil Jackson is a well-known, highly respected and successful former professional basketball player, coach, and executive in the National Basketball Association. The significance of his words wisely express that by working not only as individuals, but by banding together as a team that we can achieve and reach our goals and aspirations. In order for PROCESS EXPO to be the success that we all want it to be, we must all do our part. The Association’s leadership, Show Committee and Floor Activities Task Force, show management, and all our exhibitors have devoted a tremendous amount of resources and preparations to provide attendees with a great show experience. But regardless of the great activities that will be available on the show floor, a show cannot achieve success without both a sufficient number of attendees, and perhaps more importantly that they be the “right” show attendees. As we all know, the #1 reason attendees come to any tradeshow and your booth, is because you send them a free invitation. One key tool that has been provided to exhibitors is our free VIP Guest Invite program (formerly Exhibitor Invites) that allows you to reach out and invite as many of your customers to PROCESS EXPO and specifically to your booth at the show. The program is extremely easy-to-use, can be customized to meet your needs, and is very customer friendly. You might already have and prefer to use your own internal customer invite plan to help secure attendees for the show. Regardless of the method you utilize for contacting your customer, we ask that you send those invites out as soon as possible as there are several fall shows and securing your customers to visit your booth PROCESS EXPO is of utmost urgency.

I also want to take this opportunity to apprise you that back for a second round at PROCESS EXPO will be the inclusion of five separate working production lines on the show floor, incorporating equipment from 33 exhibiting companies. This is a show floor activity that you don’t see at any other industry trade shows and truly sets PROCESS EXPO in a class by itself. Building on a concept that was the most talked about and valued by our attendees at PROCESS EXPO 17, our upcoming show will feature lines producing and packaging ground beef patties, frozen pizzas, sliced pepperoni, sliced cheese and kibble for the pet food segment. Each of these lines will feature live demonstrations three times each day and one on day four of the show. We know that attendees in our past show greatly appreciated and valued the opportunity to witness actual “live” production as well as the opportunity to ask equipment experts about their specific machinery and product applications. We once again anticipate that the product lines will be a popular destination during the show and thank the participating exhibitors who have made these lines possible through their extensive collaboration.

Further, I know how busy your team is in organizing for our show and as such we want to help your team be prepared in the most time and cost effective way. The PROCESS EXPO Exhibitor Success Program is a 5-step program that has been created to assist you with your trade show needs. Please make sure to visit www.myprocessexpo.com/exhibitor-success-program to access valuable resources which includes: schedule/planning tools, white papers, and webinars. All of these resources will help ensure you have a great show experience. Don’t forget to sign up for the last live webinar taking place on September 5th before the show on Inside YOUR Exhibiting Numbers: Easy-to-Apply Metrics for Measuring Exhibiting Performance, Value and ROI. You won’t want to miss it!

Lastly, in addition to the many efforts that all of us are dedicating to the show, we also have not forgotten about the needs of others in Chicago. A truly outstanding trademark of our Association is to help those that are less fortunate. Once again, we will be joining forces with the Greater Chicago Food Depository (GCFD), to “give back” to our host city and those in need in a very meaningful way. Since launching our first DEFEAT HUNGER campaign at PROCESS EXPO 2013, through the kindness of our exhibitors and contributors, we have provided nearly 1 million meals for those in need in Cook County. We once again ask for your generosity by participating in our campaign and ask that you and your exhibit team join us at a press conference at 1pm on Thursday, at the show floor entrance, to partake in this very gratifying event.

As always, please feel free to reach out to me at dseckman@fpsa.org or at 703/663-1200 with any questions on how we can help you have the best PROCESS EXPO ever, or if the Association can be of any assistance.

Sincerely,

David Seckman
President/CEO
FPSA