Several members of our team recently headed out to Düsseldorf to represent IML at Tube and Wire 2016. The event, held every two years, runs over 5 busy days and is a chance for over 2,600 companies from around the world to showcase the latest machinery, equipment and products from the cable, wire and tube processing industries.
Tube and Wire has been running for 30 years. Back in 1986, 21,000 visitors attended the very first event in Düsseldorf. That number reached an impressive 69,500 this year, with visitors coming from over 130 different countries around the globe.
Three quarters of this year’s visitors to the show were executives and decision makers, making Tube and Wire a great place to showcase our extensive range of high-performance labelling products and services. Visitors clearly found the show as useful as we did, with 60% of finding new suppliers during their visit.
This was IML’s 6th visit to Tube and Wire, and it certainly didn’t disappoint! We had a great stand location on the first aisle in Hall 17 (Wire and Cable Products and Trade), putting us in prime position to welcome incoming visitors.
Attendees were able to explore a wide variety of stands exhibiting:
- Wire cable and fibre optic machinery
- Innovations in forming technology
- Mesh welding machinery
- Spring making technology
- Pipe and tube manufacturing, processing, treatment and trade
Stretching over 16 exhibition halls and a total area of 110,900 square meters, it’s fair to say there was plenty on offer for visitors!
Our stand was set up with a range of our products and printers on full display, helping to attract attention from the exhibition visitors. Our expert, multi-lingual team were always on hand to answer any questions. Having learnt from previous years how tiring the event can be, we rotated our staff to ensure we could always provide the best level of service to visitors to our stand.
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With people travelling from all over the world to attend the event, we found having multi-lingual team members on our stand a huge benefit!
We worked with ITSL Ltd (https://itsluk.com/) on our exhibition stand design, and were thrilled with the results. The final design, construction, finishing and lighting met our requirements exactly, and this was reflected in the amount of visitors we received.
From speaking with other exhibitors, we discovered that footfall may have been higher in some of the other exhibition halls, but the quality and authenticity of the enquiries we received at our stand was extremely high.
We noticed a marked interest in clear and durable product identification and tracking products this year. The ability to identify and track products is becoming essential to the smooth trading of steel across the globe, and many visitors showed interest in our specialised, high-performance labels.
Traditionally the last day of the exhibition is quieter than the other days, and this year proved to be the same. Many exhibitors began packing up early, but we stayed until the official end of the event and took the opportunity to interact with other exhibitors and do some exploring of our own on the last day!
We were delighted to meet with some of our current overseas customers, and took the opportunity to catch up and review their label requirements. We always love meeting up with our existing customers, partners and suppliers from all over the world, and this event provides the perfect setting in which to do this.
Amid a climate of economic upheaval around the globe and a worldwide steel crisis, many exhibitors at Tube and Wire (IML included) experienced great success and were pleased with the amount of leads generated, proving once again that this event provides an excellent return on investment.
Our stand received over 150 high quality enquiries and leads! These related to a broad range of products, including our super durable Rip-proof tags, our Thermo-Tag (600) high temperature tags and our complete, in-house label printing systems.
As a result of these enquiries, we’re currently contacting and providing quotes for our visitors. We’ll soon be planning trips to Iran, India and Turkey thanks to Tube and Wire.
IML’s Sales Director, Neil Dunn, had this to say of the event:
“Tube and Wire is by far the best exhibition we attend across the sectors we currently work within, the quality of leads was top level and the decision makers were here to make improvements to the operational side of their businesses. It is a long week for the staff involved, but the initial results are very encouraging.”
If you missed us at Tube and Wire, or would like to discuss your labelling requirements with us, contact us on +44 (0)114 2422111 or email info@iml-labels.co.uk to see how we can help.
Many exhibitors rebook their space once the show ends, and IML will certainly be planning to attend in 2018. Hopefully, we will see some of you there!
Click the following links for more information on Tube, and Wire.