MHI’s MODEX Welcomes Record Attendance

As an indicator of the strength of the supply chain industry, attendees registered in record numbers for the MODEX 2016 expo held April 4-7 in Atlanta’s Georgia World Congress Center.

The expo is sponsored by MHI and is designed to showcase equipment and systems solutions as well as learning opportunities that span the entire supply chain, from material handling to logistics across manufacturing, assembly and distribution.

The expo attracted nearly 25,000 key decision-makers in virtually all manufacturing, logistics, distribution and supply chain industries. The expo featured the solutions of over 800 exhibitors covering 250,000 net square feet. Reflecting the global nature of the expo, over 100 countries and six continents were represented at this year’s MODEX.

“MODEX truly lived up to its motto, the greatest supply chain show on earth. Attendees experienced a wide range of manufacturing and supply chain equipment and systems solutions and education offered at MODEX,” said George Prest, CEO, MHI. “MODEX attendees know that investing in the latest supply chain innovations is the key to building and maintaining competitive advantage. We saw a large number of buying teams at MODEX with very specific objectives and plans in hand.”

MODEX 2016 is the largest international expo of its kind held in North America. Supply Chain & Transportation USA collocated with the event.

“Collocating Supply Chain & Transportation USA with MODEX 2016 allowed manufacturing and supply chain professionals unparalleled education and networking opportunities as well as exposure to a broad display of material handling, logistics and supply chain equipment and technology,” added Prest.

MODEX Highlights

MODEX Industry Night with the Blues Brothers Revue was an exciting and entertaining networking event with over 1,200 attendees and exhibitors in attendance. Over $40,000 in proceeds from this event was donated to the Material Handling Education Foundation.

During this event, MHI announced the winners several awards including the 2016 MHI Innovation Awards during MODEX. The MHI Innovation Award serves to educate and provide valuable insights on the latest manufacturing and supply chain innovative products and services.

• Best New Innovation: Fetch Robotics for Robot & Follow Pick
• Best Innovation of an Existing Product: Intelligrated Inc. for Intellisort Cross-Belt – Dynamic Discharge Compensation
• Best IT Innovation:  RAM Mounting Systems for IntelliSkin & GDS
• Luis Castaneda was named the 2016 MHI Face of the Supply Chain. Castaneda is Key Account Manager at Raymond Handling Concepts Corporation.
• Chris Glenn of Hytrol was awarded the 2016 MHI Young Professionals Network (YPN) Mentor Award and Arsenio Evans and Isaiah Reynolds of Swisslog were jointly awarded the 2016 MHI YPN Outstanding Young Professionals Award.

MODEX Supply Chain Conference

Along with healthy traffic on the show floor, MODEX featured a supply chain conference that included four keynotes from Peter Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of X PRIZE Foundation, Jack Allen, Senior Director, Logistics & Manufacturing Solutions, Supply Chain Operations, Cisco and Kevin O’Leary, Entrepreneur, Investor and Shark Tank’s Mr. Wonderful.

During the April 6 keynote, George Prest and Scott Sopher, principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Supply Chain practice, released the findings of The 2016 MHI Annual Industry Report – Accelerating change: How innovation is driving digital, always-on supply chains.

MODEX 2016 was held April 4-7 in Atlanta’s Georgia World Congress Center.

The MODEX Supply Chain Conference also included over 100 educational seminars outlining leading trends, best practices and state-of-the-art equipment and technology solutions. In addition, MODEX partnered over 30 universities and industry organizations for the first-ever Supply Chain Education Summit. Webinars of MODEX 2016 educational seminar sessions are now available online at MODEXShow.com/seminars.

MODEX Student Days introduced over 300 high school and university students and educators to career opportunities in material handling, supply chain and logistics through hands-on learning and networking with industry professionals. This year’s Student Days combined an interactive educational session with a dynamic guided tour of the MODEX expo and tours of supply chain facilities in the Atlanta area.

The next MHI-sponsored trade event will be ProMat 2017 held April 3-6 in Chicago’s McCormick Place. For more information on exhibiting at ProMat, or to register as an attendee, visit www.ProMatShow.com. The next MODEX will be held at the Georgia World Congress Center in April of 2018.

MHI offers education, networking and solution sourcing for members, their customers and the industry as a whole through programming and events. The association sponsors trade events, such as ProMat and MODEX to showcase the products and services of its member companies and to educate manufacturing and supply chain professionals on the productivity solutions provided through material handling and logistics.