CHICAGO — AMT — The Association For Manufacturing Technology’s biennial IMTS – International Manufacturing Technology Show took place once again at Chicago’s McCormick Place Sept. 9-14.
“IMTS 2024 had an energy of excitement the moment one stepped into McCormick Place and as they walked through the show. A strong sense of community emerged as visitors, exhibitors and partners focused on collaboration, business and mutual growth,” said Michelle Edmonson, CEM, Vice President – Exhibitions at AMT.
By the Numbers
With a total registration count of 89,020, the 2024 edition attracted nearly 3,000 more attendees than the last edition, according to Trade Show Executive’s data on the 2022 event. The show spanned an impressive 1,226,523 net square feet and featured 1,737 exhibitors from 10 different manufacturing sectors.
This year’s show saw about 13,000 more square feet of show space than the 2022 edition (which occupied 1,212,806 NSF), and despite featuring less exhibitors than in 2022, the show saw a record-breaking 40 million pounds of machinery on the floor.
“IMTS 2024 also marks a pivotal point in the show’s history as IT giants made their debut at IMTS. The participation from Microsoft, Google Cloud, AWS, and other tech leaders highlights the essential partnership between manufacturing technology and the IT space,” said Edmonson. “The collaboration of these communities is poised to make a significant impact. I believe this will expand how IMTS can help the Manufacturing and Tech communities grow their businesses.”
Leaders from these IT giants also spoke on IMTS stages, announced partners and addressed how IT and manufacturing are becoming increasingly interconnected.
“Manufacturing is going through a digital transformation using cloud services to help manufacturers innovate and drive business outcomes, either through improving efficiency within shop floor environments, within product design, or by creating new products and services,” said Steve Blackwell, Worldwide Technical Leader Manufacturing, AWS.
In exciting news for the conference portion of IMTS, pre-show registration for this year’s IMTS 2024 Conference attracted 53% more registrants, double that of 2018 — the previous record-setting year.
An Impact Generator
The Smartforce Student Summit also saw growth this year, with more than 14,700 students and educators participating in the program encouraging hands-on experience with technologies and learning experiences. Edmonson said that the IMTS team expects the number of students, educators and exhibitors participating in this section to grow another 25% or more for the 2026 edition of the show.
“We all know there is a workforce shortage, so we are engaging youth with hands-on exhibits, live technology demonstrations, and engaging speakers such as NASA astronauts,” Edmonson said. “By showing the technology involved, we can inspire students to participate in STEM programs and subsequently pursue careers in manufacturing. All the technologies and sectors of IMTS are represented in the Student Summit area.”
The Miles for Manufacturing 5K Run/Walk raised a record-breaking $47,445 for STEM programs thanks to 19 sponsorships and more than 500 participants.
Related. IMTS is Serving Success to Exhibitors
What’s New?
“IMTS 2024 was a hub of innovation. Our flagship feature, the AMT Emerging Technology Center (ETC), was no disappointment to the audience. This year’s ETC partners included BlueForge Alliance, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Apptronik, and MTConnect,” Edmonson said.
The ETC featured a convergent manufacturing platform from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Apptronik’s humanoid robot Apollo, which is being taught using AI and a technique called imitation learning. According to Apptronik’s Director of Product Marketing Dave Lin, imitation learning is like teaching a young child how to do something for the first time
“The four stages at IMTS (IMTS+ Main Stage, IMTS+ AfterWords stage, Formnext stage, and SPS – Smart Productive Solutions stage) hosted over 100 presentations throughout the six days of IMTS. Speakers ranged from industry icons to military officials, and from creators to influential entrepreneurs and passionate manufacturers from all around the world,” Edmonson said.
Kathleen Mitford, Corporate Vice President, Global Industry Marketing at Microsoft, opened the show with a keynote speech focusing on how “AI solutions are accelerating manufacturing outcomes across the sector from factory floors to boardrooms.”
Other speakers included U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Todd S. Weeks, Program Executive Officer, Strategic Submarines, who gave a keynote address and provided contacts for the U.S. Navy Submarine Industrial Base program for manufacturers that want to win defense business, and Praveen Rao, Global Head of Manufacturing Solutions at Google Cloud, who spoke about how Google Cloud can help manufacturers to “break down data silos and integrate across the enterprise systems to gain a 360-degree view of their operations.”
Marketing Efforts
“IMTS is successful because we incorporate a refresh — every single show,” Edmonson said. “We purposely remodel everything, from marketing and design to structure and implementation. Naturally, the IMTS 2024 marketing advertising campaign (#WeAreIMTS, #IAmIMTS) followed this philosophy. The full-press campaign, which featured the IMTS community telling their stories both in the industry and why they come to IMTS, was extremely successful. These stories were shared in print publications, through a digital programmatic campaign, emails/newsletters, and throughout IMTS social media channels.”
There were 170,000 organic impressions on posts from the IMTS official channels, and over 9 million impressions for all IMTS posts.
“Alongside the main campaign, IMTS had several targeted campaigns that utilized both digital and print strategies to reach the audience,” said Edmonson. “However, one secret of IMTS marketing success is to arm its community with a suite of options to market their experience. IMTS exhibitors, partners, and speakers use assets created for them to invite their customers, potential customers and colleagues to visit the show. Something unique to IMTS, for its exhibitors, is the Exhibitor Passport, which is used to both invite their customers and potential customers to their booth, all while turning data into qualified leads.”
Future Dates in Chicago
“My favorite part of IMTS is always the people,” Edmonson said. “We are so fortunate that we get to work with an amazing group of individuals. Whether it’s working with the staff of McCormick Place and Choose Chicago, our vendor partners such as GES, Freeman, CDS/Maritz, or connecting with our manufacturing community of visitors and exhibitors, the people of IMTS are like no other. We all get to share stories about how we shape the world around us; gathering those stories is an important part of how we keep re-imagining the show, as it helps us understand the needs for IMTS 2026.”
In 2026, IMTS will take place at McCormick Place Sept. 14-19.
