The annual Work Truck Show celebrates its 20th anniversary in March 2020, and its 10th straight iteration in Indianapolis
Organizers are gearing up for the 20th anniversary of the Work Truck Show, which returns to Indianapolis in March for the 10th straight year.
The show takes place March 3-6, 2020, once again at the Indiana Convention Center, said a news release from the National Truck Equipment Association, which produces the event, which in recent years has expanded into Work Truck Week.
“We’re excited to mark the 20th anniversary of The Work Truck Show and reflect on how this
“We’re excited to mark the 20th anniversary of The Work Truck Show and reflect on how this event and the work truck industry have advanced over the past 20 years.”— Steve Carey, president and CEO, NTEA
Products and technologies launched
Work Truck Show exhibitors and NTEA members include dozens of manufacturers of service trucks and accessory makers. The show features launches of new products and technologies, as well as educational sessions on subjects as varied as vehicle upfitting solutions, welding trends, rapid prototyping, and hiring and retaining workers.
Registration for the show was scheduled to open in October. The show itself opens March 3 with the Green Truck Summit and Manufacturer and Distributor Innovation Conference, as well as the first of the educational sessions. The exhibit hall is open March 4-6.
The Work Truck Show name made its debut in 2001 in Baltimore, the year after the NTEA produced T3 — The Commercial Truck Trailer & Technology Expo, the news release noted. The NTEA had produced member events since 1965, a year after its formation as the Truck Equipment & Body Distributors Association, commonly called Distributors Association or D/A.
Those early events began as sales and marketing workshops featuring tabletop displays but grew over the next decade into the D/A Convention, “the industry’s annual meeting for truck equipment distributors, body builders and suppliers.” Those conventions included a trade show in a hotel ballroom that limited exhibitors to 100 square foot booths.
The association then launched a biennial Supershow in 1982 that in its first year featured 67,350 square feet of exhibits, including vocational trucks, at the Superdome in New Orleans.
“In the late 1990s, markets were consolidating, distribution channels were shifting, customer demands were changing and there were rapid developments in information technology and equipment innovation. It was time for a new, more frequent trade show,” the NTEA release said.
The result was T3 in 2000 and a year later, that inaugural Work Truck Show. Since then, the show has taken place in Orlando, Atlanta, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Chicago, and St. Louis, before settling in Indianapolis in 2011.
How the show has grown
The show has nearly tripled in size since 2001. Meanwhile, the number of exhibitors has increased since then from 350 to 500 in 2019. And attendance has nearly doubled — from 7,143 in 2001 to a record 14,256 in 2019.
With the available exhibition space maxed out, in 2019 the show added a New Exhibitor Pavilion to help accommodate some of the companies on the exhibitor waiting list.
In recent years, the NTEA has opened the show with the Green Truck Summit. It began in 2007 as a special session called the Hybrid Truck and Alternative Fuels Summit.
“We literally started in 2007 with three or four vehicles in the corner,” Doyle Sumrall, NTEA
“Major announcements are being made, and new alternative fuel and advanced technology products are being introduced regularly at The Work Truck Show in conjunction with Green Truck Summit.”— Doyle Sumrall, managing director, NTEA
managing director, said in the news release. “Now we have a full day of education with OEMs, suppliers, government entities and users sharing their sustainability stories. Major announcements are being made, and new alternative fuel and advanced technology products are being introduced regularly at The Work Truck Show in conjunction with Green Truck Summit.”
A more recent addition is the Manufacturer and Distributor Innovation Conference, which made its debut in 2019. Other highlights of the annual show include the New Product Spotlight, and the NTEA’s annual meeting, which in the past has included such luminary speakers as former U.S. U.S. Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell, comedians Jay Leno and Jeff Foxworthy, and former professional football players Peyton Manning, Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long. The 2020 speaker will be Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and former governor of South Carolina.
For more information on the show, visit www.worktruckshow.com.