As managing editor of You can have a great show with a small crowd, or a mediocre show with the floor packed with visitors. As show sponsors always say, it's the quality that's important, not the quantity, right?
Still, people want to know, how was attendance on the first two days of NPE2009?
The answer: we don't know yet.
The Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. released some numbers at a news conference Monday afternoon, and updated them on Tuesday.
The key numbers that everyone wants are not available yet. But here's a look at what they had to say:
- The number of exhibiting companies: 1,851, about 200 more than the last show in 2006.
- The number of square feet of exhibit space: 977,000, off a bit from 1 million in 2006.
- Close to 42,000 people have pre-registered to attend the show, so far. That's as of Tuesday afternoon.
In addition, more than 3,200 people pre-registered for all of the collocated conferences, including the Society of Plastics Engineers' Antec.
Some exhibitors I spoke to Monday night felt the attendance was a bit light on the first day, although I didn't hear any complaints. Attendance on Tuesday seemed to pick up, according to some observers. Stay tuned.