Opening today, Mining & Engineering WA – the largest mining exhibition in Perth for many years – has attracted more than 120 exhibitors servicing all facets of the mining industry.
Running from July 5 to 7, M&E WA 2011 will be held at Perth’s Convention & Exhibition Centre – a premium venue close to the CBD and the city’s “Golden Mile” of mining houses, consultants, making it very convenient for high quality visitors and delegates to attend, said Paul Baker, exhibition director with organiser Reed Mining Events.
“Having more than 120 exhibitors for this show is a great result for a new event, and one which has exceeded our expectations,” Baker said.
“It’s a good indication of the strong demand from industry suppliers for a quality mining event in Perth.
“And while our major drawcard for the event is the exhibition and the suppliers participating, it has become increasingly important to provide potential trade visitors with more reasons to attend the exhibition – which is why we’ve coupled the exhibition with a high-level conference for around 50 delegates.”
The M&E WA 2011 mining industry conference will be held at the exhibition centre, alongside the show.
“We believe we can be the first to establish one here for the mining industry.
“There is no reason why M&E WA cannot evolve into one of the country’s most important industry events, for what is the leading mining state in Australia,” he said.
“With Perth a critical market for our event portfolio, we have invested heavily in our visitor marketing campaign.
“Our objective was to establish M&E WA as a permanent fixture on Perth’s event calendar and attract as many quality trade visitors as possible.
“To achieve this, our visitor marketing campaign has included billboards (Perth and Kalgoorlie Airports, Mandurah and regional areas), Perth CBD buses, metro and regional press (including The West Australian), mobile billboards around Perth, WA inflight magazines, mining trade media – both online and in print, digital advertising in CBD buildings in Perth and regional radio network advertising,” he said.
Exhibitor highlights include Metso Minerals, which will be launching a new conveyor, OEM will be showcasing its latest tight area scaffolding frames and Merlo will unveil a range of newly designed attachments for its telescopic handlers for the mining industry.
Other exhibitors include Minprovise, Pacific Automation and Thiess – which will have a personnel recruitment drive on its custom-built stand.
“Visitors can find out more about exhibitors and their products on display at the M&E WA website (miningandengineeringwa.com.au),” Baker said.
A key element of M&E WA – and a first for Reed Mining Events – is its focus on attracting “frontline” (operators, fitters, supervisors, maintenance and the like) personnel, including fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) workers, and their families.
“Due to the strong response we are receiving with our partners Mining Family Matters, all our events going forward will have a FIFO and frontliner focus,” he said.
“In particular, for M&E WA, we’ve concentrated strongly on the FIFO sector for a couple of reasons.
“Firstly, Perth is a strong FIFO town, due to its location in the strongest mining state, and secondly, we see mining frontliners as being strong influencers for many purchasing decisions.
“That’s why we have a campaign to attract more frontliners to our events as they can play such a vital role in the purchasing process – and why we’re having a competition to give away an iPad 2 every day to a frontliner visiting M&E WA.”
Baker said a significant group of FIFO workers and their partners/spouses will be coming up from the Mandurah region to attend the exhibition and the free FIFO workshop being put on by Mining Family Matters at 11am on the Thursday (July 7) of the event.
Entry to the exhibition is free of charge, and visitors can register on arrival.