The largest American welding, manufacturing and fabrication trade show of the year, the FABTECH International/AWS Welding Show, is less than a month away. Many insiders will be watching this year’s show in Chicago closely to gauge the economic condition of industry and where it is headed in the near future.

Strong attendance at the show will be taken as a sign that employers are at least thinking about investing in new equipment and are anticipating an economic recovery by looking into equipment that can give them a competitive advantage when the turnaround happens.

Trade shows also provide a glimpse into the types of markets that equipment manufacturers view as growth industries. As noted recently by Vicki Bell, editor of The Fabricator’s Web site, the Essen Welding and Cutting Show in Germany offered a preponderance of new products designed for the power generation industry. Wonder what we’ll see in Chicago?

Are you planning on attending the FABTECH International/AWS Welding Show? What will you be looking for at the show? Do you find tradeshows to be a valuable way of discovering new technologies and products, or are there other reasons you attend? Share your thoughts by posting a comment below.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 3:37 pm and is filed under Economy, Key Business Issues, Welding Techniques and Processes, Welding Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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