Opportunities to Help Promote Fluid Power

By Eric Lanke
NFPA President/CEO

In pursuing our mission of strengthening the fluid power industry, NFPA is focused on four key strategic objectives. Here’s a quick summary of the ways NFPA members can benefit from the programs associated with the third of those objectives. We call that objective Promote Fluid Power, and it’s where NFPA provides opportunities and resources for its members to promote the unique strengths and inherent advantages offered by modern fluid power technology.

IFPE

IFPE, the premiere trade show and technical conference for fluid power, remains our best opportunity for members to showcase their companies and products. IFPE 2020 is coming up quickly March 10-14, when it will again be co-located with CONEXPO-CON/AGG in Las Vegas.

Here’s something interesting. The 421 exhibitors that we currently have signed up for the show is not a record for us. But the amount of exhibit space that they’ve rented – more than 172,000 square feet – is. If you’ve not yet decided to exhibit at IFPE, that means not only is it likely that your competitors are – they are making a bigger commitment to the show than they did three years ago.

Show after show, IFPE proves itself as the one place fluid power companies have to be if they want to promote themselves and their products to buying customers.

Get more info at www.ifpe.com.

Motion + Power Technology Expo

As beneficial as IFPE is, I hope everyone knows that NFPA is supporting a second trade show opportunity for our members – the Motion and Power Technology Expo. This is a multi-technology trade show sponsored by NFPA with the American Gear Manufacturers Association and supported by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association and the American Bearing Manufacturers Association. These four organizations have recognized that the motion and power marketplace is increasingly driven by multi-technology solutions – and that no one technology choice can currently reign supreme over the others. We believe that a single show where all these technologies – fluid power, electrical actuation, and gears – can be showcased will be a powerful draw for mobile and industrial OEMs looking for motion and power solutions.

The first MPT EXPO was held in Detroit this past October – and twenty NFPA members exhibited there. The next MPT EXPO will be held in September 2021 in St. Louis – and will feature even more promotion and visibility for its fluid power exhibitors. Especially for our industrial-facing members, it’s a unique opportunity to promote themselves to a new crop of customers.

Get more info at https://motionpowerexpo.com/

Annual Report on the U.S. Fluid Power Industry

Every year, NFPA now publishes an Annual Report on the U.S. Fluid Power Industry. It’s designed to be a promotional tool that both NFPA and our members can use to help promote our industry and its technology to broader audiences.

We know that fluid power is a workhorse of the U.S. economy – a cross-cutting technology of choice for dozens of industries and hundreds of applications. But too much of the rest of the world doesn’t. Our Annual Report is therefore a handy guide, providing an overview of the size and economic impact of our industry, as well as exploring current best practices and future directions of our technology.

And now, NFPA if offering to give custom presentations, based on its content, at meetings and conferences of its members and its related organizations. I’ve done several of these events already and look forward to doing more as the requests come in.

Through this mechanism, NFPA and its members can work together to help spread powerful and positive information about our industry. You can download the report, share it, and request a presentation at: https://www.nfpa.com/home/industry-stats/Annual-Report-on-US-Fluid-Power-Industry.htm

Interested in Getting Involved?

As you can see, these programs demonstrate the ways NFPA fulfills its commitment to providing opportunities and resources for its members to promote the unique strengths and inherent advantages offered by modern fluid power technology. If you or a representative from your company would like to get engaged in any of these opportunities, please contact me at elanke@nfpa.com or (414) 778-3351.