CAMX 2018 promoted industry growth and innovation. As we look to the future, CAMX will continue to fill a need for the composites and advanced materials community – serving as the largest North American marketplace for our industry. The 2018 Post-Show Report offers a glimpse at key data points for the recent CAMX. View the full report here.
The article below was featured in the CAMX 2018 Show Daily and written by Jeff Sloan, Editor-in-Chief of CompositesWorld Magazine. To view more highlights and to learn more about CAMX, visit www.thecamx.org.
As CAMX 2018 winds down today, CAMX officials report that this year’s version of the show is proving to be the biggest and best yet—persistent rain and uncommonly cold Dallas weather not withstanding—with a record 570 exhibiting companies and more than 7,000 attendees at the expo and conference.
Heather Rhoderick, senior vice president, events and information at the American Composites Manufacturers Assn., is particularly pleased by the new technologies and products introduced at CAMX this year. “It’s obvious that our exhibitors have invested heavily in the show, which demonstrates the importance of CAMX to the North American and global composites market,” she says. “In addition, we are seeing more and more companies and attendees new to the composites market, which proves that CAMX is the place to be for composites and advanced materials information. We are working hard to keep CAMX relevant and exciting, and provide content that helps grow the industry and increase composites use across all end markets.”
Gregg Balko, CEO of SAMPE, says, “I’m really proud of this show. We have two organizations [SAMPE and ACMA] that have worked together to provide the industry a high-value, high-utility event that serves a multiple of needs. CAMX does an excellent job of addressing all of the broad challenges and opportunities before the industry.”
CAMX 2019 will be Sept. 23-26 at the Anaheim Convention Center in California. Rhoderick says attendees next year can expect an exhibit area focused especially on composites recycling technologies and materials, as well as a live manufacturing demonstration featuring—it is hoped—additive manufacturing. “We are looking for ways to make the CAMX show floor more hands-on to allow attendees to personally interact with the materials and technologies that are being discussed in the sessions,” Rhoderick says, adding, “We want CAMX to be the marketplace for business and the incubator for knowledge, ideas and connections to help the industry continue on its growth trajectory.”
Adds Balko, “CAMX returns in 2019 to Southern California, which is a very strong composites marketplace, particularly aerospace. Further, we see a lot of activity coming out of Mexican SAMPE chapters, which makes it easy for them to be a part of CAMX.”