We have all heard the comments about the PBS Show….too expensive…smaller attendance…can market on the internet instead…the Chicago traffic…Yada Yada Yada.

How about the show location? O’Hare airport is the hub of the world so flights are reasonable. You can take a quick & free shuttle from O’Hare across the highway to the Rosemont. What traffic? There are plenty of hotels within walking distance to the show, you can’t get much more convenient. Yes the hotels may be a bit expensive, but try going downtown in any major city for that price. When you subtract the cost of a taxi, or rental car with daily parking, it’s really not all that bad.

I think the PBS is a great avenue for smaller companies looking to make the jump into the big leagues. Chicago is a conveniently located up in a heavy manufacturing sector with good enough attendance from end users. These users want to learn something, anything, when they attend the show. They want to find that perfect widget that can make their job easier. The best way to learn is to touch and feel and play with all equipment in the various booths.

If you have an emerging product to bring to the market, conventional print and online media will have a difficult time connecting the benefits of your product to that process engineer with the problematic application. We have our PLC control systems featured in many of the leading industry publications. Both full-page and multiple-page spreads. And the response had been totally underwhelming. Have you seen our articles? I rest my case. But have the exact same PLC control system powered up in the booth, connected to an operating LIW feeder continuously metering powder, and the attraction is irresistible. Even people who do not know what a gravimetric feeder is will stop and check out what we are doing.

Maybe the big players in our industry have already reached market saturation. These guys already spend millions of dollars a year on back-cover magazine advertising and awesome websites, you would have to be from another planet to not know what Flexicon or K-Tron has for equipment to offer. There may not be many surprises in the booth, but it’s always great to have the chance to touch and play with the equipment. Anyway I have no reason to have them scan my card and mail me yet more advertising material. I am not going to show up on their lead count. I know where to find them. I know their local rep.

See you at PBS 2008.

Regards, Delmar Schmidt 
Melfi Technologies Houston 
dschmidt@melfitechnologies.com