A Personal IMTS Retrospective

Peter Eelman has been behind the last 13 IMTS shows.

The number would have been 14, but the pandemic got in the way in 2020, so the event moved out of McCormick Place to cyberspace. He was involved there, too.

But IMTS ’24 is the last for AMT’s Chief Experience Officer.

Eelman’s first show was not the one in 1996, which he was responsible for running.

Rather, it was in 1980 when, after graduating college, he joined Warner & Swasey, a name that industry veterans will certainly recall but which a younger cohort may recognize from a turret lathe in the back corner of a shop.

One of his first assignments at W&S was determining the floor space for the company’s various divisions at that year’s IMTS.

So before joining AMT he’d been at eight IMTS shows.

A Rubik’s Cube the Size of a Building

What surprised him the most when he was faced with the filling of McCormick Place?

“The level of complexity.”

Realize not only does he have to work with exhibitors and make it all work for attendees, but there are all manner of contractors and vendors and inspectors and. . . that’s just at the event. There is an enormous amount of work that Eelman and his team perform both before and after IMTS.

“It is still very difficult understanding all of the levels of putting a show together,” Eelman admits.

There Were Plenty of Crossed Fingers in ‘14

With all of the shows he’s worked on, there has to be one that stands out for him, and it is IMTS 2014.

Why?

“We attempted to do something that had never been done before: we 3D printed a car on-site, from scratch, with zero practice,” he answers. “The car was 3D printed, assembled, and driven out of the building on Saturday morning.”

The car, named the Strati, involved a variety of participants, from open-source, micro-manufacturing car company Local Motors to the Oak Ridge National Lab—with plenty of equipment vendors and others.

Doing something different for an IMTS has become something of a signature move for Eelman, whether it was bringing a hot-air balloon emblazoned with the event’s logo into the McCormick Plaza or establishing the Emerging Technology Center, which this year features a submarine.

It’s Not All Over Now

Not surprisingly, as the person behind IMTS, Eelman has met plenty of people in his 28-year association.

“I’ve known every mayor of Chicago. I’ve had the privilege of meeting sports figures, lots of automobile racing folks, and the heads of many top-end manufacturing companies—both buyers and sellers.”

Although 2024 will mark his last IMTS, he points out he’ll be working on the additive manufacturing event, formnext, which is taking place April 8-10, 2025—at McCormick Place.

And when he finally takes his leave from AMT, will even attending a trade show be behind him?

He hesitates and answers, “I really love the people involved.”

Odds are good that we’ll know where to find Peter Eelman on September 14, 2026.