Peter Eelman: Creating the IMTS Experience

Before he even received his diploma from Drexel University in 1980, Peter Eelman went to work for a machine tool company (the Wiedemann Div., of Warner & Swasey). He was tasked with orchestrating the footprint for the IMTS booth that was to encompass all of all of the Warner & Swasey divisions, which meant everything from turret lathes to coordinate measuring machines.

Eelman hasn’t missed an IMTS since, and as the chief experience officer for AMT, he is instrumental in not just a booth (Eelman says that it was a big booth back in ’80) but in the entire event. A massive undertaking that Eelman sounds as enthusiastic about as he probably did 42 years ago.

Nothing Like Live

“There’s nothing like an in-person event,” Eelman says. “They televise baseball games, but people still buy tickets to be there.”

Eelman has attended every IMTS since that first one. He joined AMT in 1996, so there is certainly that encouraging his attendance, though one suspects that even if it wasn’t his job to be at IMTS, he would be.

One of the things that Eelman oversees is the setup of the show.

Given that the footprint of IMTS is some 1.2-million square feet, and there are more than 2,000 exhibitors, setup is no small feat.

Two Weeks to Launch

Eelman says that setup requires two weeks. “It has always taken two weeks,” he says, explaining that back in the proverbial day it was two weeks of 20-hour days, but that as time has gone on, even though the number of exhibitors increased along with the footprint of the show (in 2018 there were 2,563 exhibitors and 1.4-million square feet of show space), they’ve gotten more efficient.

What has historically been the biggest bottleneck when it came to setting up the show?

Carpet.

Eelman says there was often a situation when the machines and equipment were on site, but they couldn’t be put in place until the carpet was installed.

Now they have instituted a modular approach so that the carpet is ready ahead of time so that the equipment can be installed on schedule.

What Could Have Been a Hiccough

As you can imagine, over the years there have been some serious snafus. One Eelman well remembers was a large machine that was supposed to have been brought in early in setup because (1) it was big and (2) it was positioned at the front of a hall.

It was late. When it arrived, essentially all of the other machines were in place in the South Hall—and that machine had to go through the South Hall.

Eelman recalls that they had to figure out how to accomplish that. The solution was to put it on a massive forklift. Literally. That is, they hoisted the machine and put it on top of the cab of the vehicle, which had its forks elevated to the top of the cab to provide more support.

He says that at midnight, when all of the other setup people had left the hall, they began driving the machine through the aisles. Eelman recalls that standing in the front of the hall and looking at the very slow movement of the machine, it appeared to be floating above the exhibit space.

Creating Memorable Elements

One of the things that Eelman is continually working at is making sure that the experience for the attendees and the exhibitors is memorable in a positive way, that it will be something memorable (beyond the magnitude of IMTS itself).

For example, in 2004 they brought a full-scale hot-air balloon, which was out in the McCormick Place plaza area for every subsequent show through 2018. This year Richard Browning of jet suit fame is on site.

Then there was an idea that was visually impressive, but had a bit of a hiccough.

“I decided to dye the water in the fountain blue,” Eelman says. It looked great.

But during the opening ceremony, the wind kicked up (this is, after all, Chicago) and some of the water was blown onto then-Mayor Richard M. Daley. “Every time I’ve seen the mayor since he hasn’t let me forget.”

Editor’s Note: In the story we ran on Monday, ‘Peter Eelman: Creating the IMTS Experience’ we misidentified Mayor Richard M. Daley. This copy is corrected. We regret the error.