As editor of The Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. and Canon Communications LLC today announced a deal that is important to companies that exhibit at plastics trade shows. Canon is buying the Plastics USA trade show, which will move from Chicago's McCormick Place to the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Ill. SPI and Canon also agreed to cooperate on some other projects and future events.
Canon will have a Plastics USA "feature" at its Sept. 25-27 Plastec Midwest show later this year. The first Plastics USA event to be managed and promoted by Canon is scheduled for Sept. 23-25, 2008.
SPI still has NPE, the largest North American plastics trade show, which is held every three years in Chicago. But Plastics USA has been less successful, and SPI was right not to continue doing the show. It's better to focus attention on projects with more promise.
It will be interesting to see what sort of long-term changes this deal signals to the plastics trade show market, and how it might affect the timing of all the major global shows (Plastics USA and the K show in Germany have tended to be too close together for some people to exhibit at or attend both).