The 2012 Upper Midwest Electrical Expo, being held this week in Minneapolis, looks like it will once again live up to its billing as the top regional electrical show in the United States with more than 9,000 attendees expected and more than 439 electrical manufacturers in 341 booths.
Sponsored by the North Central Electrical League (NCEL), the Upper Midwest Electrical Show draws electrical contractors and other end users from Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
Several exhibitors told Electrical Marketing on the show floor that a key reason for the show’s continuing success is support from electrical distributors, who bus in several thousand customers to the Minneapolis Convention Center in downtown Minneapolis. According to information in the Expo’s show guide, Border States Electric, Dakota Supply Group, Echo Electric Supply, Graybar Electric Co., J.H. Larson Electrical Co., Viking Electric Supply. W.A. Roosevelt and Werner Electric Supply chartered more than 30 buses to bring customers to the show from as far away as Bismarck, N.D., and Aberdeen, S.D.
One independent manufacturers’ rep said that because of the rural nature of much of the region, the Upper Midwest Electrical Show, which the NCEL holds every two years, is a big draw for end users who don’t always get to see so many new products in one place. He said the show also gives electrical distributors a good opportunity to get all their salespeople together for meetings and to entertain customers.
ElectroTech Inc., an independent manufacturers’ rep based in Minneapolis, parked its “traveling road show” bus on the show floor. The full-size passenger bus is customized with display panels for the manufacturers’ lines it represents. Jeff Starkman, president, said over the past few years the bus has helped thousands of customers see its product lines out in the field.
Starkman and other exhibitors on the show floor were happy with the show’s traffic. Michael Kurtz, director of sales, Coleman Cable Inc., Waukegan, Ill., who was marketing his company’s line of wire and cable products, as well as a job-site workstation, LED worklight and an innovative LED flashlight, is a regular at the show and said attendance was the best he had seen in years.
Several exhibitors also commented on the air of optimism at the show and said it was a welcome change from the rough few years the electrical market has been through. Wayne Eisel, V.P. national accounts, Wirexpress, Mount Prospect, Ill., said the Dakotas and Houston are two regional markets that are booming, and added that overall he would call business “friendly” but not yet great in all markets. Along with the wire and cable products that Wirexpress sells to electrical distributors, Eisel was marketing some of the company’s products for the security market, including a Bosch security camera.
Other notable new products at the show included Southwire’s SIMpull WireBarrel, an innovative method of pulling wire and cable from a barrel that’s transported on a built-in dolly; a new line of floor boxes from Arlington Industries; and a broad array of new LED replacement lamps from several different manufacturers.