Assembly - December 2008 - (Page 42) ASSEMBLY Assembly Events ATExpo Forges Ahead Exhibitors express confidence in spite of a sputtering economy. n today’s uncertain—okay, crazy— economy, generalizations and predictions are often of fleeting value. What appeared certain yesterday may already be irrelevant today. By tomorrow morning, this afternoon’s conventional wisdom may have already been consigned to the dustbin of history. And let’s not even think about our 401Ks! I to figure out how best to engineer a partial nationalization of the country’s banking sector. Nonetheless, if last fall’s ATExpo is any indication, there is still plenty of reason to hope. John Engler, the president of the National Association of Manufacturers (Washington), is fond of saying that manufacturing serves as the bedrock of the U.S. economy. He has also said in recent months that it is his constituency Business was good, attitudes were positive and manufacturers still seemed to have plenty of work. that will ultimately see the United States through these troubled times—and if exhibitors at ATExpo are any indication, he may very well be right. Despite the bad news pouring out of the television sets in the bars and hotel lobbies across the street, things in the exhibit hall itself were good. Granted, overall square footage was down slightly, with many companies bringing substantially smaller exhibits than they have in the past. But traffic remained brisk from beginning to end. Not only that, many exhibitors were saying the general interest and the quality of the leads they received were as strong or stronger than they had been in years. The economic news outside may have been frightful, but exhibitors at this year’s Assembly Technology Expo reported strong traffic and plenty of quality leads. By Adam Cort Senior Editor Which brings us to this year’s Assembly Technology Expo (ATExpo), sponsored in part by ASSEMBLY magazine and held in September at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, adjacent to Chicago’s O’Hare airport. Since that time, the stock market has gone into a tailspin the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the Great Depression. Credit markets have followed suit, and at press time, the federal government was still trying 42 ASSEMBLY / December 2008 www.assemblymag.com http://www.assemblymag.com
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