The Association for Advancing Automation organization (A3) announces today that they have made the difficult decision to postpone the 2021 AUTOMATE Show until 2022. The trade show has been rescheduled for June 6-9, 2022, at TCF Center in Detroit, Michigan, USA.
The Pandemic Recovery Pushed The Event Back
A3 states that this decision was made due to the uncertainty of the pandemic recovery in 2021. The decision was difficult to make, due in part to the impact that the pandemic has had on all of the industry events in 2020. After consulting with their board of directors and several of the large suppliers, the A3 event team made the decision to pull the plug on the 2021 event.
“The pandemic has taken a major toll on people all over the world,” said Jeff Burnstein, President of A3. “While we expect that vaccines will have a positive impact in 2021, we don’t believe it would be in the best interests of our exhibitors, attendees, speakers, and staff to hold an in-person Automate in May of 2021. Coming out of the pandemic, companies in every industry will be looking for automation products and solutions to help them become more successful in an increasingly-automated world. Automate Forward and Automate 2022 will be critical to that growth.”
More than 20,000 attendees and 600 exhibitors are expected in Detroit for Automate 2022. The Automate Show in 2021 was on pace to be the largest ever, with nearly 300,000 square feet of exhibits. Exhibitors for the postponed 2021 show are currently being notified about how they can lock in their participation in Automate 2022.
A3 is the largest industry organization in North America, supporting the automation market. While the pandemic has had a positive impact on some niche markets within automation (specifically for mobile robotics and warehouse/logistics supply chain), the overall macro economic impact has caused economic stress for automation suppliers.
It is likely that the industry will see other in-person events postponed or cancelled in 2021. Virtual events will remain the primary channel for sellers and buyers to communicate into the near future.
Automate Forward – A New Virtual Event for 2021
A3 also announced Automate Forward, the premier virtual conference and trade show for the robotics and automation industry, which will be held March 22-26, 2021. The conference will feature more than 80 speakers on robotics, machine vision, motion control, artificial intelligence, and smart automation technologies. This is the best compromise for fulfilling the market’s need for tradeshow activity in 2021.
For more information:
Automate Show website: https://www.automateshow.com
Automate Forward Event website