Plastics Live Fully Returns in 2024 – Your Questions Answered

The team at Plastics Live are delighted to announce that the exhibition will be back with a bang in 2024, returning to the CBS Arena in Coventry on the 12th and 13th of June. PlastikMedia spoke with Scott Colman, CEO of FPS Events, to discuss the 2024 event and answer some commonly asked questions about the future of Plastics Live.

Following Plastics Live’s successful debut launch show in 2022, sustainability took centre stage in 2023 as Sustainable Plastics Live, part of the Plastics Live ecosystem, partnered with Innovate KTN to host the GRIPS Conference. The event successfully showcased cutting-edge research and innovation from academia and industry. It focused on making polymer processing more sustainable and was complemented by a smaller exhibitor group, displaying their sustainable solutions on the exhibition floor.

For the 2024 exhibition, Plastics Live returns in full force, with all four of its initial pillars represented; Plastics Live to showcase the latest and greatest technology and trends in plastics manufacturing, amplas showcasing innovations in additive manufacturing, Industry 4.0 in Plastics for all things digitalisation and optimisation, and finally, Sustainable Plastics Live returns in partnership with Innovate UK and many contacts and supporters gained during 2023’s Sustainable Plastics Live exhibition.

With a lot planned for 2024, and a few questions over previous editions of the show, we sat down with event organiser Scott Colman to put our most common questions and queries to him directly.

Q: Scott, why did Plastics Live not run in 2023?

Scott: For many of our exhibitors who had already heavily invested in other events for 2023, so we made the decision to defer the full Plastics Live event to 2024 so as not to disrupt their potential ROI. To provide continuity for the brand rather than not run at all, we pivoted our focus to Sustainable Plastics Live, one of our four event pillars.

This gave us the opportunity to partner with Innovate UK and the GRIPS Conference, allowing us to develop the sustainable element of the show, creating contacts and partnerships in the sustainability space, which will form an essential component of Plastics Live next June and moving forwards.

Q: What are your plans for building the visitor numbers for 2024?:

Scott: Overall, we were pleased with visitor numbers for our debut show, but we understand that people are always wary of fresh out-of-the-block events. We know that a number of visitor companies sent representatives to the first show to check it out on behalf of colleagues, and we know that our first event has garnered support from these “scouts”, and this will lead to better attendance from visitors and exhibitors alike in 2024.

The main focus of our visitor promotions will be to bring the right level of visitors, serious buyers and decision-makers from the sector. We believe Plastics Live provides an excellent platform to showcase the latest innovations from the UK plastics sector, so will provide high-level visitors with an efficient and effective cross-section of the developments in the industry and be well worth their time.

In 2022, the overall response from the Plastics Live exhibitors was that they were impressed with the quality of visitors Plastics Live attracted for its debut show, and we will continue to build on this every year as support and momentum for the event grows.

Q: Why did Plastics Live 2022 not have the separate areas of the show that the marketing said it would have had?

Scott:  As a first-time event, we decided not to separate areas of the show floor in 2022, as we felt this best demonstrated how all the technologies and services contained in each “section” worked best when they worked together. However, we received feedback that for future shows, exhibitors and visitors alike would like them to be demarcated on the show floor, and we are already working on delivering defined sectors for the industry to visit in 2024.

Q: What will Plastics Live deliver in 2024

Scott: We aim to develop the show floor from the four main pillars of the event – those using traditional plastics manufacturing methods, additive manufacturing in plastics, sustainable plastics, and industry 4.0 technology. 

We are invested in this event as we believe that it will be of long-term benefit to the UK Plastics Industry. We aim to provide an event in an easy-to-access location, which is focused and well-rounded, delivering cost-effective exhibitor opportunities with high-quality visitors and unique learning opportunities based on extremely relevant panel discussions. 

Designed by ex-plastics industry professionals and event specialists, Plastics Live will take place at the heart of the manufacturing centre of the UK in Coventry and will offer a top-class, comprehensive range of technologies and services covering all aspects of injection moulding technology, extrusion, and thermoforming, raw materials, processing machines, peripherals, additive manufacturing, Industry 4.0, automation, and sustainability solutions.

Plastics Live is designed to provide exhibitors with a cost-effective opportunity to generate high-quality leads. The organisers predict over 150 exhibitors will take part in the 2024 event.

If you and your business are interested in being one of them, visit the Plastics Live website at https://plasticslive.co.uk/.

We hope this answers any questions you had about Plastics Live, but if you’d like to get in touch with Scott to get your question answered, you can reach out via the Plastics Live website.

We look forward to seeing you on the show floor in Coventry, 12th – 13th June 2024!