The opening day of the International Fluid Power Show and the co-located CONEXPO-CON/AGG show at the Las Vegas Convention Center was greeted with good weather and good crowds as it opened on March 10. It also featured with many red and white buttons with a diagonal slash across a handshake.
“No Offense—Just Makes Sense” read the buttons.
With concerns over coronavirus spreading as fast as the virus itself, attendees at this triennial event said they were being cautious but were still interested in the show exhibits.
“I think they’re calling this the fist-bump convention,” exhibitor Neil Moss told the Las Vegas Review Journal. “But we have a booth here, so if the customer wants to shake my hand, I’ll shake his hand.”
“I’m just keeping it common sense,” Moss said. “I don’t live my life in fear. I’ve just got to do what I’ve got to do.”
That seemed to be the attitude of everyone at the show. The open-air construction equipment exhibits and other aspects of the CONEXPO took a smaller hit from cancellations, losing just about 2% of booth space. The IFPE show, contained inside in the South Hall, took a much harder hit when four major exhibitors pulled out less than a week before the show opening. That totaled almost 20% of the floor space. International exhibitors and attendees also have dropped out of the show.
And while attendance figures for the show won’t be known until after the final exhibit is closed on Saturday, show officials remained positive about both attendance and the overall show health.
“Of course, [we] have had some impact with the COVID-19,” said Dana Wuesthoff, vice president of exhibitions and event services for the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, which manages the two shows, in an interview with KSNV-TV in Las Vegas. “Most of that has been international-based. It’s still less than 1% of our total attendance.”
