Hillhead returned this summer and brought with it staggering attendance and exhibitor numbers.
Held once again at Tarmac’s Hillhead Quarry near Buxton, Derbyshire in the UK, more than 19,500 trade visitors and 598 exhibitors flocked to the three-day show to see a plethora of new products, cutting-edge technologies and innovative trends.
Building on the momentum of 2022’s show, Hillhead 2024 was the most visited edition ever in terms of the volume of visits over the three days, according to QMJ Group, the organizer of Hillhead. Visitors spent more time at the show than ever before and a record number attended for more than one day, adds QMJ. In total, there were 26,626 visits over the course of the show, marking an 8 percent increase over the 2022 edition.
In terms of unique visitors, Hillhead 2024 saw an increase of 6.2 percent compared to 2022, with 19,577 attendees from 67 countries – the second-highest-ever number of trade visitors, behind only 2018’s show (19,753 attendees). Hillhead 2024 also recorded the event’s busiest ever show day in its 42-year history, with almost 10,800 visitors attending on day two.
Every sq. ft. of exhibition space – including an extended Showground Pavilion – was fully booked and occupied, and a record number of machines took part in four live demonstration areas around the quarry.
“With visitors spending more time at the show than ever before, it was fantastic to see Hillhead continuing to break attendance records,” says Richard Bradbury, exhibition director at QMJ Group. “It’s an exciting time for the industry as digitalization, automation and decarbonization continue to drive change within the quarrying, construction and recycling sectors. This was represented by the scale and quality of the 600 or so companies that exhibited.”
Manufacturer musings
Exhibiting companies included JCB, LiuGong, Develon, Terex Washing Systems, Case, Komatsu, McLanahan, Wirtgen, HD-Hyundai Construction Equipment, Astec, Liebherr and Hitachi.
The consensus among the exhibitors and visitors at Hillhead 2024 was that the trade show continues to be a highly popular showcase event for businesses to promote their latest plant, technological innovations and services to a high-caliber international audience.
As usual, the middle day of the event (Wednesday) turned out to be the busiest of the three show days, with many exhibitors reporting very busy stands with deals being struck, plenty of high-quality leads to follow up, new contracts being made and old contacts being renewed, according to QMJ Group.
“Hillhead is one of the best trade shows around and we are delighted to have used the event as a worldwide launch pad for one of our most significant product launches in recent years – the ProPress,” says Colum Bryson, head of UK and Ireland operations at CDE. ‘The feedback on all our product innovations … has been extremely pleasing. Overall, it has been a very positive and productive event for us. The visitor footfall was fantastic, particularly on the opening day (Tuesday) and Wednesday, where we saw lots of customers old and new.”
Another company to enjoy a hive of activity on their stand was Edge Innovate.
“It’s very important for us to be at Hillhead and to showcase our latest innovations, technologies and service offerings to the quarrying and waste-recycling sectors,” says Adrian Donnelly, marketing manager at Edge Innovate. “Hillhead 2024 has been an extremely strong event for us regionally and internationally. We’ve been incredibly busy throughout, helped, of course, by the great weather – not to mention the buzz and unmatched atmosphere coming to a show like Hillhead.”
For Bradbury, one of his key takeaways from the show was the ability for attendees to get up close and personal with equipment on display.
“My abiding memory of Hillhead 2024 is the unique ‘human’ platform it provided for buyers and sellers to engage,” he says. “To feel, touch and interact with the products on show, and, of course, to catch up with colleagues and network with the wider industry.”