30 Years of K
Where has the time gone?
Here I am again – in Dusseldorf, Germany, a place where I probably never would have visited had the plastics industry not been my career choice. It’s time again for the K fair, the largest plastics industry event in the world.
My first K show was in 1992, back before there were cell phones, e-mail and laptops. In those days, before I started Next Step, I was working for KONA Corporation, a leading plastics industry hot-runner system supplier. I was responsible for the company’s booth design and set-up; and once the show opened, I’d work the booth with the sales team for the entire 8-day show. If that wasn’t enough, I’d stick around Dusseldorf for a couple of days afterwards to tear the booth down and pack it up. It was a 2-week effort, and it seems so long ago.
As I sit here writing this on the opening day of K2022, I’m texting and e-mailing, scrolling through social media, and finalizing documents on my laptop – and I realize that I could do exactly none of these things 30 years ago.
Some things have not changed – like the sheer immensity of this show, which continues to be the world’s largest fair devoted to plastics and rubber. Also, the displays themselves; while the technology has changed by leaps and bounds, the exhibitors still pull out all the stops to show impressive displays of their latest and greatest machinery, equipment and materials. The show has usually drawn upwards of 225,000 attendees in the past; it will be interesting to see the numbers this year, which is the first K show since the Covid pandemic.
I have some great memories of this event. There was my first K show experience in 1992, and my first working independently as Next Step, in 1998. In 2001, the show was held just two months after the September 11 terror attacks. There was a much smaller contingent of attendees from the USA. My flight to Germany was mostly empty; and at the show, I remember numerous people going out of their way to thank me for coming.
In 2004 (and 2007, and 2013), a group of Boston fans, myself included, paid a bar owner in Dusseldorf’s Altstadt (Old Town) to stay open all night, so we could watch the Boston Red Sox in the playoffs and World Series. The first game in 2004 was a legendary event and led to the Sox winning their first World Series in 86 years. The games started at 2:30 a.m. German time, ending around 6:30, when we would trudge back to our hotels for 3 hours of sleep before getting up and going back to the show. Everyone who was there will never forget it.
I think of my family often at these shows. It’s hard to believe that when I went off to my first K show in 1992, my kids were 8, 6 and 4. Now they’re that, plus 30. My wife and kids remember helping me prepare and assemble press kits back in the day, when we would print out press releases, photo prints and captions, stuff them in folders, usually add burned CD’s and eventually USB thumb drives, etc. Today, most of the press wants none of these things – just a link to the information online will do.
Today, K2022 opens. Here’s to a successful show. While it’s been 30 years for me, the K fair is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. Long may it run.
Photo - Source: Messe Düsseldorf