“Not only is it our first time back at AGG1 in three years, but it’s a period of great growth for the industry,” Edwards says. “Infrastructure is on the rise, resulting in aggregate material being in high demand. We anticipate that producers will be eager to get back to the show and learn about new screening products and services to help them not only keep up with fulfilling orders, but produce high-quality, in-spec product.”
Travis Wise, vice president and general manager at Wingra Stone, enjoyed his first AGG1 experience in Indianapolis three years ago. Wise is excited about the opportunity to visit Nashville this time around, although he expects this year’s show turnout will be somewhat dependent on the state of the pandemic come late March.
“I want to see the newest equipment and parts,” says Wise, whose company has a number of aggregate operations around Madison, Wisconsin. “Trade shows are also best for networking. I’m looking forward to it. I would assume they’re going to have a strong showing.”
Dibble Equipment’s Matt Dibble is equally excited about getting back to the show and visiting with manufacturers and customers.
“I think there’s probably a lot of people who want to get back out to trade shows,” says Dibble, who is a member of the sales team for Dibble Equipment, a Mid-Atlantic equipment dealer. “People are eager to get back to doing business the way it’s always been done. I think there’s been a slight disruption to ‘normal’ due to COVID, but I see trade shows coming back just as strong or even stronger because people are eager to get back out and connect.”
Education opportunities
Along with exhibits, AGG1 offers educational opportunities with more than 60 sessions across four tracks: operations and production, safety and health, business and people management, and environment and sustainability.
A hybrid version of the AGG1 Academy tracks will also be available for those not traveling to Nashville. Dugas says show management worked with presenters to record content digitally and provide on-demand education. That portion of the show will be available one week after AGG1.
“We really do want to shore up a great video content library of all of our AGG1 sessions,” Dugas says. “In the past, we’ve done them live, and it’s ‘one and done.’ Now, we’re creating a digital library where folks can go back, rewatch something [and] share it with a colleague.”
Editor-in-chief Kevin Yanik contributed to this article.