Targeting your niche market by exhibiting at smaller trade shows & venue’s, the inception of the Precast Trade Show began in Chicago.  The home of  Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute – PCI, The PreCast Trade Show will be held in February 2009 in Houston.  PCI has a large list of upcoming trade shows & events in the industry.

“The Precast Show is an equipment and services trade show designed by precasters and suppliers, and it puts the focus squarely on manufacturing, safety, technical training and the producers who are doing award-winning work in this industry,” according to Ty E. Gable, president of the National Precast Concrete Association. “The Precast Show was designed from scratch by the experts – the exhibitors and precasters who will be doing business on the trade show floor.”

NPCA held extensive brainstorming meetings with exhibitors and precast manufacturers and developed the event along with longtime trade show partner, the American Concrete Pipe Association. The Precast Show has been in the planning stage for more than two years, starting with a meeting of 66 major exhibitors held in Chicago in 2006. The group started with a blank sheet of paper, Gable said, and worked toward their vision of the ideal show.

The show will never be as large as the trade shows geared toward the entire concrete industry, but that’s actually one of its main benefits. Richard Isaacson, principal with iwi group LLC, based in Norcross, Ga., said that the largest shows are so massive that “some of your customers aren’t going to be able to find you. That’s the benefit of a smaller show. Everyone will be able to find you and you’ll be able to spend time with them. I’m excited about it,” Isaacson added. “I think it will give us a good opportunity to see our customers in a setting that is conducive to selling. It’s quality, not necessarily quantity.”