After a four year absence from our calendars for the obvious reason of the pandemic, the MACH exhibition returned last month…..and wow what an absolute belter!! If you exhibited or visited, you will no doubt concur on what a fantastic event it was – if you didn’t make it, you really missed out…
Nobody needs a reminder of the challenges the industry has faced over the last four years with Brexit and Covid giving every business a turbulent time. Visitors and exhibitors had a valid reason for scepticism over how much of a success MACH would prove to be in the countdown to the biennial event, but as soon as the doors opened on Monday morning, the clouds of the last four years dissipated. As the week progressed, the visitor numbers continued to swell and the smiles of exhibitors grew wider by the minute with order intake growing beyond all expectations for exhibitors.
MTD had its biggest and best show to date and the stand was a hive of activity all week. The digital media crew were streaming live from exhibitors’ stands through the week and the viewing figures went through the roof. The filming covered the latest technology from Hexagon and Star on the first morning with the team moving to the Ceratizit stand after lunch to live stream a prize draw that saw World cycling champion Katie Archibald MBE pick the winner of a British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK raffle. The winner, Dave Buchan from Havant-based Monolution won a £6000 Hope HB 130 mountain bike that will be custom fitted for Dave by Hope Technology. Adding to this day-one high note, Ceratizit has since commented that it received a record number of MACH enquiries with over 1500 sales leads to follow-up. Not only will this keep the Ceratizit team busy for some time, but it also emphasises why the manufacturers that aired with caution and decided not to exhibit, really need to be at MACH 2024.
Through the remainder of the week, the digital crew filmed live streams from the stands of Hainbuch, NCMT, Matsuura, Sodi-tech, Hoffmann Group, Intoco, Dugard, Schunk and Chester Machine Tools. With more than 20 MTD staff on-site, the team filmed technology and updates from dozens of exhibitor stands and at the end of each day, exhibitors and visitors were invited to participate in the live daily podcasts. The live MACH updates were also posted on the MTD social media platforms for viewers to enjoy days and weeks after the event closed its doors.
Commenting on the show, MTDCNC Managing Director Paul Jones said: “MACH 2022 was a huge success for MTDCNC. As always. we looked to offer something new and something different. One of the stand-out points for me was the daily live podcast that we did at 4.30pm every day, we literally had people queuing up to feature. The last one we did on Thursday ran for 100 minutes as we welcomed more than 12 guests that had been exhibiting at the show. It wasn’t just the guests that made it, it was the audience too. In total, our podcasts and live streams saw over 100,000 people engage with our content during the 5 days. We thoroughly enjoyed engaging with visitors and exhibitors alike – roll-on MACH 2024!”
From an MTD magazine perspective, our publishing team with more than 50 years of MACH experience embarked upon a multi-purposed mission to capture as much of the show as possible. Celebrating our fourth anniversary at MACH, the MTD magazine team was treading up and down the aisles looking at the latest technology, seeking out company news, updates, opinion and comment from visitors and exhibitors alike. We also took the opportunity to meet new faces and industry contacts, which for so long had been Teams or Zoom appointments.
Getting back to ‘face to face’ meetings
Thousands of engineers have participated in online meetings and webinars during Covid with sales, technical applications, research and even trials and pre-installation prove-outs being conducted via Teams and Zoom – all without a single handshake taking place. MACH brought our community back together and this was a joyous occasion with exhibitors finally getting the opportunity to connect with new clients; and more importantly, re-connect with long-term customers, suppliers, competitors and most importantly friends. Our publishing team spoke with hundreds of engineers and the one common thread was the joy of rekindling ‘face-to-face’ relationships.
But let’s not forget, MACH is first and foremost about advancing the manufacturing sector and showcasing the very latest technology. The pre-show message from the Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA) was all about the ‘post-pandemic’ manufacturing revival, the drive to Net Zero and exploiting the opportunities offered by decarbonisation, the development of innovative technologies shaping advanced manufacturing and additive manufacturing. The show organisers were optimistic that MACH would bring bumper levels of business – not a sentiment confidently shared by many in the pre-show build-up. However, the pandemic has wound-up industry like a coiled spring and the prospect of thousands of innovations making a UK premiere; paraded to an engineering audience that could capitalise on financial incentives such as Super Deduction and AIA available to invest in capital assets – the results were staggering. Everywhere our team looked, there were significant capital equipment sales. For every new machine purchase, there was an ancillary equipment supplier on-hand to support the purchase with tooling, workholding, cutting fluid, software and more. In most instances, machine vendors were directing their new customers to the stands of fellow exhibitors to support the purchase – this micro-climate of collaboration is what MACH is all about. Early reports have indicated that XYZ sold 32 machines at MACH, Mills has reported 22 Doosan sales and dozens of fellow exhibitors from Citizen to GM CNC (Victor) and Mazak to Vollmer and more – the post-show reports of success keep streaming in.
