Longer second day hours, new machinery section preview hours and a return to Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas are changes for the 2018 International Fastener Expo.

Conference sessions and the Welcome Reception begin on Tuesday, October 30, 2018. The trade show will be Wednesday and Thursday from 9am to 4pm.

New for 2018:

• The second day hours extended to 4pm.

• Almost new location: The trade show moves from the Las Vegas Convention Center to Mandalay Bay. Those who have been attending for years will remember when NIFS was at Mandalay Bay from 2007 through 2010.

Mandalay Bay is on the south end of the famed Las Vegas ‘Strip.’

• A new “Preview day” for Machinery & Tooling and SourceGlobal from 1pm to 4pm Tuesday.

The Welcome Reception will be from 6-8pm Tuesday alongside Mandalay’s daylight pool.

The IFE Hall of Fame and other awards presentations will be at 2:30pm Wednesday at the sessions corner on the show floor.

2018 Conference Sessions:
• Controllers, Accounting, Credit & Accounts Receivable Managers meeting. Tuesday 9am.

• The Basics of Thread Rolling.  Liberato Pietrantoni, director of global sales, CJWinter, Thursday 9:30am.

• Environmental Impact with Coating Changes. James Kuzara, sales manager, Ship & Shore Environmental Inc., Thursday 12:30pm.

• Additional conference sessions will be posted soon on FastenerShows.com.

Also holding meetings in conjunction with IFE are the Women in the Fastener Industry, Young Fastener Professionals and the International Fastener Machinery & Suppliers Association.

Attendee registration is $50 until September 15; then $65 in advance and $75 onsite. Web: FastenerShows.com

Show management projects “over 5,000” registrants for the 37th annual show in 2018. IFE owners Emerald Exhibitions does not announce specific numbers, but previous show management’s numbers show the total registration record was 5,620 in 2007 and their last year in 2015 was 4,490. Distributor registration was 1,577 in 2007 and 1,248 in 2015.

By announcing registration numbers were up 26% in two years, Emerald implied total registration was about 5,669 in 2017 and distributor registration 1,672.

The 2018 IFE will be concurrent with the automotive specialty products trade show, SEMA – which draws 70,000 participants. Web: Semashow.com

The Specialty Tools & Fastener Distributors Association meets October 28-30 in Phoenix. This is the second time many fastener exhibitors and attendees have had the STAFDA meeting in Phoenix Sunday / Monday / Tuesday and what was then the 2010 National Industrial Fastener Show / West conflicting by starting on Monday. In 2010 that was caused by the then NIFS owners’ conflictive scheduling. This year STAFDA had been scheduled later in Denver, but a larger trade show bumped it out. STAFDA had to scramble to find a new location.

In 2019 the two shows will be nearly two months apart: IFE will be Sept. 17-19 in Las Vegas and STAFDA will be Nov 10-12 in Nashville.

The fastener trade show was founded as the National Industrial Fastener Show in 1981 in Columbus, Ohio. Emerald Exhibitions acquired NIFMSE after the 2015 trade show and renamed it IFE for 2017.

Emerald operates 55 B2B trade shows in the U.S., which Emerald says draw more than a half million participants. Web: EmeraldExpositions.com


Fastener Tech Starts 2019 Booth Sales
Exhibit space sales have begun for Fastener Tech ’19.

The biennial trade show, co-produced by the Mid-West Fastener Association and Fastener Technology International, will be June 3-5, 2019, at the Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL, near Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

Fastener Tech is designed for fastener manufacturers, distributors, users and suppliers.

The preliminary schedule includes seminars Mon/Tues/Wed, exhibition Tues/Wed, and All-Industry Reception Tuesday evening,

Fastener Tech 19 will be co-located with the National Association for Surface Finishing’s SUR/FIN trade show. Web: nasf.org

The 2017 event included the debut of the Fastener Industry Summit, which was organized by the Fastener Industry Coalition. Web: fastenercoalition.org