MDT 06 EVENT REVIEW
The place to do business
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“There is no other event like the MDT Expo to meet the right people face-to-face,” was the comment of one attendee. “The best, and only, place to meet all the people in the UK medical device market,“ said another.
These remarks were typical of the feedback received from visitors and exhibitors alike at this year’s MDT Expo exhibition, which was held in Birmingham, UK, on 15-16 February 2006.
The first quote came from David Williams of Sambrook Research, a UK consultancy that has completed more than 450 studies helping companies develop in sectors ranging from transport and packaging/plastics, to health care and general engineering. The second comment came from Stuart Mead of Touch Bionics (formerly Touch EMAS), which has more than 40 years’ experience of creating electrically powered upper limb prostheses.
They and more than 4000 other attendees to this year’s MDT Expo, which is Medical Device Technology’s principal event, saw two days packed with innovative product and component displays, backed by free presentations and university research contacts.
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The event was so successful that, even after the first of the two days, several exhibitors had justified their investment in being at the Show.
“Our reason for participating ... was to speak with influential decision-makers,” said Ernst Poppe, Healthcare Segment Manager for first-time exhibitor DuPont Engineering Polymers. “We are delighted to say that already, after the first day, we are excited about the number and quality of the enquiries taken.”
Lawrence Davie of AGR Automation, which supplies assembly systems for disposable medical devices, said the company chose MDT Expo as the place to introduce its new PLM modular platform. “The launch has been a huge success,” he said. “It generated a huge amount of interest from CEOs and project managers – exactly the right sort of people.”
Scandinavian Health Ltd (SHL), which uses Swedish expertise and Taiwan manufacturing in making drug delivery devices, had a similar experience. SHL Marketing Manager Steven Kaufman commented, “We were very pleased to see so many top pharmaceutical companies, including representatives from Unilever and AstraZeneca. We also spent time talking to our industry peers who were well represented, proving this is the right event to be at and the right platform to introduce products to market.”
Visitor satisfaction
Initial results from an in-Show survey of attendees conducted by the organisers found that visitor satisfaction was high. For example, when questioned about the exhibitors in terms of range, number and quality, 72-87% of respondents rated them as “good” or “excellent.” Remarkably, there was universal agreement among those surveyed that their personal objectives in attending had been wholly or partially achieved.
