NPE2015 recap and 2018 dates announced

More than 65,000 people attended the NPE2015 trade show in Orlando, Fla., last month.

With more than 1,100,000-plus net square feet of exhibit space, the five-day show was the largest in its 70-year history, according to the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc., the show organizer. In the build-up to the event, SPI had estimated that approximately 60,000 visitors would attend the show this year. “Registered attendance for NPE2015 was 65,810 – 19 per cent greater than three years ago,” SPI said. “These registrants came from 23,396 unique companies – 22 per cent more than the 19,198 companies at NPE2012.”

International participation also set new NPE records, with nearly 44 per cent of exhibiting companies and 26 per cent of registrants coming from outside the U.S. Nearly 5,000 registrants were from Latin America alone. “Exhibitors came from 37 nations in all,” SPI said. “In descending order of number of exhibitors, the ten largest participating countries are China, Taiwan, Canada, Italy, Germany, India, Turkey, France, Switzerland, and South Korea.”

SPI has also announced that it has signed contracts to keep NPE at Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center for the next two editions of the triennial show – in 2018 and 2021 – and the association has also reserved dates for NPE 2024 in Orlando.

The next edition of the show is scheduled for May 7-11, 2018.

NPE2015 was the second NPE in Orlando; the first was in 2012.