• Highest ever footfall with over 19,500 visitors attending

• A record 412 exhibitors with diverse solutions for intralogistics

• Show opened by world land speed record breaker, Richard Noble

• A wealth of brand-new products launched at the show

• Design 4 Safety award winners announced

• New autumn slot for IMHX 2016 revealed

The International Materials Handling Exhibition (IMHX 2013) delighted visitors, exhibitors and organisers alike when it took place at Birmingham's NEC recently. The UK's leading intralogistics exhibition featured impressively designed stands, thousands of innovative exhibits, informative seminars, a variety of entertainment and plenty of serious business.

The logistics industry's flagship event, which took place from 19-22 March across four halls of the NEC, attracted not only the highest ever number of exhibitors - 412 - but also a record 19,526 visitors. Rob Fisher, Director of the Materials Handling Group of organiser, Informa, said, "We're absolutely delighted that we have delivered a record number of visitors at IMHX 2013. Equally as important, the feedback we've had from exhibitors shows that the quality of the visitor profile is excellent, resulting in a large volume of high-quality leads from senior people. We worked very hard in the run-up to the show to ensure this level of visitor quality and, for their part, our exhibitors put on a fantastic show for them."

The show's co-organiser with Informa, the British Industrial Truck Association (BITA), was equally delighted with the exhibition. James Clark, Secretary General of BITA, commented, "Many BITA members have said that they have enjoyed many serious and positive discussions over the four days of the show. Visitors have been upbeat about business prospects and are ready to re-invest. It was a real bonus to see so many young apprentices at the show - after all, they are the future of our industry."

Exhibitors buoyant
IMHX 2013 exhibitors were delighted with the volume of visitors and the quality of the leads they achieved. For example, Paul Watson, General Sales Manager for Doosan Industrial Vehicles, said, "Doosan had an excellent show. We had one of the biggest and most impressive stands with a huge range of products and we believe that it was well worth our investment." Paula Ovaskainen, Marketing Manager for Cimcorp, agreed: "Our stand at IMHX 2013 was larger than we had ever taken before at this show so that we could install a live demo of our 3D Shuttle robotic handling system, which literally stopped visitors in their tracks. The quantity and quality of the enquiries we received have made our investment very worthwhile."

Dates for IMHX 2016 revealed
For the next IMHX event in three years' time, the show is moving to an autumn slot and new halls. Explained Rob Fisher, "IMHX 2016 will take place from 13-16 September in halls 9 to 12 of the NEC. Pre-bookings of stands by exhibitors at this year's show were excellent, so any companies wishing to exhibit in 2016 are advised to reserve their desired stand as soon as possible."

Supersonic Bloodhound wows visitors
Sponsored by BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions, IMHX 2013 was opened by world land speed record breaker, Richard Noble OBE, who is Project Director for the latest record-attempting vehicle, Bloodhound SSC (SuperSonic Car). The 14m-long, jet- and rocket-powered car was displayed throughout IMHX in the show's Skills & Apprenticeships Zone and Richard gave a fascinating presentation to update visitors with the latest news about the car, which will attempt to pass the 1000mph mark. A sponsor of Bloodhound - which will make its first high-speed runs in the Hakskeen Pan, South Africa, towards the end of this year - is IMHX exhibitor, Linde Material Handling UK, which has been helping the Bloodhound team to load and unload the show car as it travels around the UK. Attracting a world-renowned engineer of Richard's calibre complemented the current focus of the intralogistics industry to attract fresh blood into engineering. The Skills & Apprenticeships Zone also featured one of the vehicles entering the 'Enduro Challenge' engineering competition for schools organised by the BITA Academy, BITA's dedicated apprenticeship training facility. The challenge, which will take place later this year, is for secondary school teams to design, build and race an electrically powered vehicle.

Free seminars and brand-new feature areas
IMHX also provided a packed programme of free seminars to help companies improve their materials handling. The IMHX Logistics Excellence Conference featured presentations at strategic level delivered by renowned industry experts, while the IMHX Logistics Case Study Conference offered sessions that outlined best practice from a range of blue-chip companies. In addition, the Automated Material Handling Systems Association (AMHSA) offered visitors an insight into a range of logistics automation topics with its 'Meet the Expert' presentations in the AMHSA Pavilion. Commented Dave Berridge, Secretary of AMHSA, "IMHX has provided our members with a great opportunity to meet prospective buyers of automated solutions and educate visitors about the benefits of automation. With over 30 of our members exhibiting and our popular 'Meet the Experts' seminars creating a hive of activity, the AMHSA Pavilion has been a real destination at IMHX, ensuring that handling automation once again has a high profile at the show." A brand-new feature area at IMHX was the UKWA 3PL Zone, hosted by the United Kingdom Warehousing Association. Roger Williams, CEO of UKWA was delighted with its success, commenting, "We were able to showcase the wide range of products and services offered by our membership of over 600 companies. The presence of leading 3PL companies at IMHX put the full breadth of the supply chain under one roof, giving even more benefit to visitors."

The Design 4 Safety competition, which recognises the importance of product design in improving safety throughout the materials handling industry, made a welcome return to IMHX. Winners in six categories - as judged by an independent panel of experts - were announced on the first day of the show, with the overall 'Professionals' Choice' - Sentry Protection Products with its innovative Collision Sentry forklift collision avoidance system - being decided by visitor voting and revealed on the last day. Another contest that attracted significant interest was the RTITB Operator of the Year Competition, the heats of which took place over the four days of the show. Crowds looked on as skilled forklift operators from across the UK and Ireland competed in a special arena for the chance to move forward to the Grand Final in September. IMHX also provided its exclusive VIP valet parking scheme again, allowing top executives to drive straight up to the show's entrance, have their vehicle parked securely by a professional driver and enjoy access to the VIP Lounge with complimentary refreshments and Internet facilities. Another brand-new feature that sparked interest at the show was the Social Media Zone, which featured a giant iPhone that displayed the IMHX Twitter feed and which was the focus for a lively Tweet-up on the last morning of the exhibition.