New North American Trucking Supershow Slated for Atlanta in September 2017
The companies in the partnership are Newcom Business Media of Toronto and Deutsche Messe AG of Hanover, Germany. The event will be known as the North American Commercial Vehicle Show and is scheduled for Sept. 25-29, 2017.
Joe Glionna, general manager of Newcom, confirmed a company statement to Transport Topics about the new show on April 14, and said negotiations are ongoing with a specific facility with at least 300,000 square feet of indoor space in metropolitan Atlanta.
Glionna declined to answer numerous questions, but said there should be much more to say next month.
“I think the industry wants this solved by May,” he said. “Eighteen months is the timeframe you need to get going on a show such as this.”
Glionna said Newcom personnel started thinking about producing a show last year after truck makers said they would skip the 2016 Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Kentucky.
Several manufacturers said they only wanted to exhibit in North America in odd-numbered years, concentrating instead in Europe in even years. Newcom and Deutsche Messe personnel have worked extensively on the project over the last three to six months, he said.
Mid-America organizers recently said they want to keep their show an annual event. Held at the Kentucky Exposition Center, MATS has access to 1 million interior square feet and another 200,000 square feet outdoors.
Deutsche Messe is the organizing firm for Hanover’s IAA Commercial Vehicles show that will run this September. IAA is much larger than MATS and uses multiple buildings. It is held every other year.
“We evaluate all of our sales and marketing activities when we develop our business plans for the upcoming year,” said Volvo Trucks North America spokesman John Mies. “We will be evaluating this opportunity as well to determine whether we will participate.”
Newcom is the owner of numerous Canadian trucking publications, including Today’s Trucking, Truck News and Transport Routier. The company also runs Canadian truck shows in Montreal and Toronto.
In addition to the NACV challenge to Mid-America, American Trucking Associations and the Heavy Duty Manufacturers Association said in March they were beginning to explore the possibility of producing a U.S.-based truck show. The two trade groups brought in Messe Frankfurt, another German trade show firm, as a partner.
ATA spokesman Sean McNally said the federation is still interested in producing a show.
“ATA, along with our partners HDMA and Messe Frankfurt, remains committed to exploring the creation of an industry-centric biennial truck show: one that focuses on the concerns of the trucking industry and manufacturers and materially invests in the industries’ collective well-being,” McNally said.
