Conexpo is always a highlight of the trade show cycle for me. Las Vegas is an extraordinary place to visit, although I am glad that this year I did not have to spend the full six days at the show. Two days was enough to wear me out, even if it did mean that
I wasn’t able to meet up with quite as many people as I had planned. It also meant that I was not able to take up my invitation to the social event of the week – Terex’s St Patrick’s Day party. All good Americans try to claim some sort of link with Ireland, it seems, but Terex actually can, through its Powerscreen subsidiary. Headlining the Terex party were ‘80s soft rockers Huey Lewis and the News, although I am told that the event was so huge, many of the 3,000+ who attended did not actually manage to see the band.
Liebherr had a simpler solution for live entertainment. It had looky-likey music icons performing on its stand at the show – Elvis, Springsteen, Neil Diamond, and others. Very Vegas!
Less enjoyable was the noise the Comansa guys had to endure from some over-enthusiastic Korean drummers next door. Not as bad as 1999, however, when Cranes Today was next door to Link-Belt revving up an extremely loud Nascar racing car at frequent intervals. I am glad to say that Link-Belt now lets its cranes do the shouting, with a little help from lively Suzie who does the presentations.
I was surprised to run into Graeme Riley, CEO of UK-based Unic Cranes Europe. Unic already has a distributor in the USA, which has been at previous Conexpos with Unic boom trucks, but not this time. Graeme was demonstrating a Unic mini crawler on the Wylie Systems stand. He was there at the invitation of Wylie, who wanted a machine to demonstrate their load moment systems. Graeme and his sister Gill have had significant success since starting out last year, selling 60 mini crawler cranes in 2004, and hoping to hit 100 this year. They’ve already had their master distributor territories extended beyond western Europe to eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Brazil, and Argentina, and are developing a growing international profile.
Terex kept a roof over its head
It was curious to see Terex Cranes exhibiting indoors – an interesting decision, and one that seems to have generated split views within the company. Crane guys like to stick their booms in the air and show just what they’ve got. However, I liked being able to study the detail of the boom heads from up close for once. The bigger problem for Terex is that, purely from an exhibition perspective, it has too much kit in its portfolio. It needed more space. Liebherr and Manitowoc went for the spread out look, to give space to roam between the exhibits. The latter, of course, only has cranes to worry about, while Liebherr and Terex cover a wider spectrum.
It was on the Manitowoc stand that
I was set upon by Crane Man, the company’s strange beefcake mascot.
I guess I should have known that the only safe bet in town was that he would pick on me.
Slightly shorter than Crane Man, but no lesser a figure of the industry is Fil Filipov, the former Terex Cranes president, with whom I enjoyed a drink at The Venetian. His retirement is clearly not going to plan – or at least not to the plan of his wife Veronique. They had barely settled into a Monte Carlo apartment overlooking the sea, when the international travel schedule of his various private business interests forced a swift relocation to Paris.
Incidentally, while in The Venetian I overheard someone say that Mel Gibson was at the gaming tables. I didn’t see him, but maybe he’d been at Conexpo too, researching a role perhaps. I’d be interested to hear your views on which crane industry character he might play (pjwbishop@yahoo.co.uk).
I suppose I should reveal my favourite crane in Vegas. Well, it was the magnificent 888 with luffing jib working away on the Strip (an extension to The Venetian, I believe). Cranes aren’t meant to sit around at trade shows doing nothing except look shiny and glamorous. I much prefer to see them working and earning their keep.
P.S. I need to make a correction to my suggestion last month that Komatsu still makes cranes. I have since been unable to find any reference to them in any Komatsu product catalogue and learn that Komatsu dealers now offer Tadano cranes to their customers.
