This article was updated at 4:56 p.m. Wednesday, March 4.
Although show organizers have been touting increased attendee registrations, several companies have canceled their exhibit spaces and participation in IFPE 2020 due to Coronavirus risks, including Parker Hannifin, Eaton Corp., API Heat Transfer/TTP and most foreign companies, especially those from Italy and China.
Show organizers have not confirmed any other names of companies pulling out.
Official word came from the following with these statements this morning and afternoon:
Parker Hannifin – Parker has made a difficult, but thoughtfully considered decision, to not participate as an exhibitor or as attendees at IFPE/CONEXPO 2020 next week. With the coronavirus COVID-19 continuing to spread, and with more than 200 Parker team members attending globally, we believe it is prudent for them not to travel.
Parker’s priority is to protect the health and safety of its team members and the communities where they live and work.
We continue to support the show and its organizers and look forward to another great event at IFPE/CONEXPO 2023.
API Heat Transfer/TTP Withdraws from ConExpo-Con/Agg 2020 – The health and safety of our employees, customers and partners is a top priority at API/TTP, so we have made the difficult decision to withdraw from exhibiting at ConExpo-Con/Agg this year due to concerns about the coronavirus. We look forward to connecting with many attendees of ConExpo-Conn/Agg, including our customers and industry partners, in the coming months.
Eaton Corp. — “Eaton has notified show management. The difficult decision was made to ensure the health and wellbeing of our employees, customers, suppliers and the communities we serve, and prevent the spread of the virus.”
Additionally, almost all Italian companies are no longe exhibiting at IFPE 2020, with the Italian Pavilion essentially being empty. A large swathe of Chinese exhibitors have also removed themselves from the event.
Several companies are downsizing their presences as well, with the terms “skeleton crew” floating around. I have been told by several sources that many companies are only bringing key personnel and the booths with hundreds of team members floating around might only have handfuls of staff manning them.
Robby Shell, COO of Permco, said the company will not be pulling out of the event because it’s too late to cancel, but will be only participating on a much smaller scale. “There is no cancellation relief — therefore we haven’t announced a total pull out — in essence there is no provision for cancellation on our booth or hotels. That window was closed months ago,” Shell said. “We have reduced from 24 staff and 500 invited RSVP guests to staff of 2 and 80% cancelled attendance by our clients (100% cancellation of our international guests). We plan to install live streaming and Skype connectivity in the booth to replace humans.”
