Catching up with MHI’s Daniel McKinnon

Daniel McKinnon, MHI
Title: Executive vice president, exhibitions
Location: Charlotte, N.C.
Experience: More than 30 years producing trade shows, including 4 years with MHI
Duties: McKinnon is responsible for producing ProMat and Modex

Modern:This is going to be the first post-pandemic ProMat. After a very successful Modex, how are you feeling about ProMat?

McKinnon:We’re very excited about the tremendous momentum that we recognized at Modex, coming out of the pandemic. It was an unqualified success that will carry over to ProMat.

Modern:Any facts and figures you can share with us? Let’s start with the scope of the event.

McKinnon:At this point, we’re about 35% larger just in exhibition space than in 2019, with 565,000 square feet sold as of Nov. 19. For comparison, we had 425,000 square feet at ProMat in 2019 and 405,000 square feet last March at Modex. We’re going to have around 1,000 exhibitors.

Again, for comparison, we had 920 exhibitors at ProMat in 2019, and 850 exhibitors at Modex. And, exhibitors are taking more space than they did in 2019. They’re investing in the customer experience. Last, we’re planning for 50,000 registered attendees, which will be the largest ProMat ever. Finally, something new for this year’s show is a startup pavilion, which will align with a new MHI community. It’s going to be an opportunity for new, qualified companies to exhibit. This new initiative includes a juried, non-MHI affiliated StartUp Award.

To read the complete interview, please clickhere.