The rain had a big effect on the attendance at this year’s National Ploughing Championships. Just over 200,000 attended, which is a shortfall of the near 300,000 that attended last year’s event. Despite the weather, many trade stands attracted lots of interest. If your business had a stand at the event, I hope you did well and that it was a worthwhile venture for you.
It is often said how trade shows are great places to renew acquaintances, meet new people and, more importantly, clinch some deals. This is all true but recalling the different stories that happen during the shows is always nice to hear.
For example, at the National Ploughing Championships, It was a memorable show for many, including Niall Tiernan, export sales manager of SpreadPoint, whose company won the Machine of the Year with the SpreadPoint SP-900 lime spreader. Fighting off stiff competition, this was a good news story for the Northern Ireland based company.
On the final day of the event one exhibitor had to leave his stand in a hurry. Colm Doran, from Tullow, County Carlow, and the inventor of a piece of machinery that allows four hay bales to be carried at the same time, left his stand at 2pm to get married at 4:30pm. He left a ‘Back Soon – Gone to be Married’ sign at his display. What a lovely story.
The National Ploughing Championships could be seen as a kind of kick-start to attend trade shows and conferences, either as an exhibitor or visitor. Many of these will be taking place over the next few months. They include the CEMA Summit (23rd & 24th Oct. at the Autoworld museum, Brussels); SALTEX (1st & 2nd Nov. 2023 at the NEC, Birmingham); Agritechnica (12th – 18th Nov. in Hanover); LAMMA (17th & 18th Jan. 2024 at the NEC, Birmingham).
Then there is our very own Service Dealer Conference and Awards on Nov. 30th at the Crowne Plaza, Stratford-Upon-Avon. Great speakers and talks are lined up. The theme of this year’s conference is Taking Care of Business. You can find out more by visiting here.
A growing trend for future agricultural trade shows is the exhibiting of more environmentally friendly machines. There will be many debates around the contribution of the agricultural machinery industry to sustainable farming. It is already happening where the agricultural machinery manufacturing sector is developing solutions and innovations to address the sustainability issue. From robots to precision farming, from soil working machines to alternative fuels, the pressure is on to have these machines available, which, it is hoped, will eventually replace traditional fossil fuel powered equipment.
Who knows what tractors will be running on in thirty years’ time? It may well be the case that our fossil fuelled cars will be replaced with electric ones. I think it is far too high an expectation to think that the same will apply to large tractors and heavy powered equipment. The present battery technology of delivering and storing energy is simply not going to work with these machines.
Having said that, more sustainable machines are being displayed in our showrooms. Providing the service and back-up for them will be very important.
