As COVID-19 continues to spread — more slowly in some places than others — it’s probably not a surprise to hear of more changes coming to trade shows and conferences still on the schedule for 2020.
On July 2, organizers of Plastimagen, Mexico’s largest trade show, said they would move the event to January, from its original dates in November.
The same day, machinery giant KraussMaffei announced it would not “actively” participate in Fakuma 2020, set for October in Friedrichshafen, Germany.
And this morning, July 7, Sumitomo (SHI) Demag said it would refrain from actively participating at Fakuma “in case the exhibition will be executed this year at all.”
“We are fortunate that the coronavirus has largely spared us. There have been isolated cases, but there have been no infections within the factories,” CEO Gerd Liebig said in a news release. “Health is such a precious commodity. Even with hygiene measures in place, taking part in a trade fair involves too many imponderable risks and unfortunately we cannot eliminate risk.”
The company added that Fakuma will continue to play a “major role” within the company’s marketing strategy in the future, but not in 2020.
The decisions from KraussMaffei and Sumitomo (SHI) Demag comes on the heels of Wittmann Group’s decision in late June it would skip Fakuma.
Many conferences are moving online with digital content. We’re doing our best to keep up with all the changes in one combined tracking list. If we’ve forgotten anything, feel free to drop us a line and let us know.
Now in an attempt to cheer you back up, there’s this opinion article by Abby Turner, marketing manager of Dow Inc.’s Health and Hygiene business for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, on a common question the plastics industry has been hearing and answering: How can I help?
As Turner writes in our sister publication Sustainable Plastics, companies throughout the supply chain have stepped up to supply items ranging from personal protective equipment to hand sanitizer while also donating food and other items to people in need.
“During this time, the entire world has come together, ignoring the typical barriers that normally divide us. We are grateful for the best minds looking for solutions, innovating and selflessly helping and giving,” she writes.
One example Turner points to is the work by a Dow team based in France and engineers from Cytec to develop prototypes for protective gowns in less than 48 hours to deliver PPE to Santa Fe Springs, Calif.
In the midst of a range of stories on the implications of the NAFTA replacement, the U.S., Mexico and Canada Agreement, I came to discover that it’s only those of us in the U.S. who think of it as the USMCA. But perhaps everyone already knew this and I was just wasn’t paying attention.
Via Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, I now know it’s CUSMA for folks there, for the Canada, U.S., Mexico Agreement. (Or Accord Canada–États-Unis–Mexique, or ACEUM, in Quebec.) While in Mexico, it’s Tratado entre México, Estados Unidos y Canadá, or T-MEC.
So whenever we do get back to international travel and trade shows, I guess some of us will be reminding ourselves that some things, like names, changed in more ways than we expected.
This post appeared first on Plastics News.
