Modex 2024: Records broken,  robots everywhere

There’s a good chance your ears are still ringing from the record-breaking Modex 2024 that wrapped up on March 14. In fact, all sorts of records were broken this year in Atlanta. Registration rang in at 48,733 visitors, up 32% from Modex 2022, and the 580,000 net square feet across three halls (another record) housed more than 1,200 exhibitors, up from around 850 two years ago—not to mention my back-to-back record-breaking “steps” days.

As executive managing editor Noël Bodenburg reported leading up to production of our Show Daily last month, we’d never seen so many product releases before an event. “It was a record,” she said, “and so many unique products from companies that aren’t typically on our radar.” And they were all there, flying their flags, working to differentiate in what is becoming a very crowded market.

Indeed, with this many booths to visit, people to see, hands to shake, miles to walk, it took a few days for any major takeaways to settle into my brain.

It didn’t all really formulate until I got together with executive editor Bob Trebilcock and senior editor Roberto Michel at the end of March to begin our 2024 Virtual Summit planning (going live July 25). We begin our summit planning by answering the simple question: So, what did we learn at Modex?

“To be honest,” says Trebilcock, “we didn’t really see anything new this year. What we saw was a lot of the innovation that’s been introduced over the past few years—innovation that now needs to be digested. There’s so much out there, and now operations have to figure it all out.”

Michel agreed, adding that, as we enter this “great digestion” phase, integration is the name of the game. “All of this automation, robotics and the software that pulls it together really works,” he says. “This is no longer a science project. Now, we need to pause to digest what it means to our own operations and figure out how to apply it properly.”

Farewell…for now

A very wise HR director I met early in my career once told me: “No one is irreplaceable.” And I’ve found through my many years of managing staff that she’s 99% correct.

As many Modern readers may have heard, long-time executive editor and contributor Bob Trebilcock officially retired on March 31. He evolved into “the face” of Modern over the past 30+ years, and I’m nearly certain that his insight, understanding and passion for this market in which he spent the majority of his professional career can never be replaced.

Not only did Bob grow up in this market, with the family pallet business fanning the early flames, but the fact that his range of interests—film, jazz, guitar, Hemingway, Django, Baker—and his ability to communicate from the unique position as an artist, a screenwriter, an accomplished guitarist, as well as a B2B reporter with true industry knowledge at the ready puts him on a plateau most will never be able to reach.

He never liked when I called him a “Renaissance man,” that rare person who’s acquired profound knowledge or proficiency in more than one field. But if Bob isn’t one, then they don’t exist. I believe they do.