COVER STORY

Electra Mining Africa Putting innovation in the spotlight and setting new records

Electra Mining Africa set new records this year, as it celebrated being the biggest-ever show in its history! 950 exhibitors occupied 40,000m² of net exhibition space, spanning six exhibition halls and four extensive outside exhibit areas, with just under 40,000 visitors.

Taking place at the Expo Centre in Nasrec, Johannesburg, from 2-6 September, visitors were able to explore thousands of new products, ground-breaking machinery, the latest innovations, and world-class technologies. The many live demonstrations allowed visitors to see products and machinery in action during the five days of the exhibition, as well as allowing them to speak to the technical experts on the stands, and compare products and brands.

“We have had excellent feedback from our exhibitors,”said Gary Corin, managing director of Specialised Exhibitions, a division of Montgomery Group, and the show’s organiser. “Many of our exhibitors have been exhibiting with us consistently for many years, while others were previous exhibitors who came back this year after a short break, or exhibiting at Electra Mining Africa for the first time. Those we have spoken to have met their exhibiting objectives, whether that’s brand awareness, or generating sales leads, or both.”

Speaking about the record numbers, Mr Corin said that“they were thrilled”with the increase over the 2022 show, and that “exhibition space increased by 42 per cent, exhibitor numbers were up by 46 per cent, and the number of visitors grew by 32 per cent.”

“But it’s not just about the numbers,” Mr Corin explained. “It’s about the quality of the visitors that come through. And it’s been impressive. Visitors from across the industry sectors represented at the show – mining, electrical, automation, manufacturing, power, and transport – were looking for the latest products, innovations, and technologies. And they weren’t disappointed by what they saw.”

“Electra Mining Africa has built its reputation as a platform for trade; the place where buyers and sellers meet to do business, contributing to the stimulation of trade in the industrial, manufacturing, and mining industries. In the months following the show, sales will be concluded and products exported globally.”

New Products and Innovation Awards

One of the highlights of this year’s event was the New Products and Innovation Awards competition, which was organised together with the South African Capital Equipment Export Council (SACEEC). This saw numerous entries from local and international exhibitors.

“We were excited to have so many entries this year and to know that this exceptional level of innovation was showcased at Electra Mining Africa,”said Charlene Hefer, portfolio director of Specialised Exhibitions. “The awards were definitely a celebration of ingenuity and outstanding levels of innovation.”

The Forklift Driver Competition, organised by Lifting Africa and the Lifting Equipment Engineering Association of SA, was back this year on a much bigger scale with many more entries. Promoting safety and efficiency, the judges were looking for exceptional forklift driver skills. The Forklift operators competing in the competition had their eyes on winning the coveted title of Forklift Driver Champion 2024!

Every day a theme day

“Our overall theme for the show was ‘Connect with Your Future’,”Ms Hefer said. “Electra Mining is all about connecting. It’s where you connect with new and existing suppliers, talk to technical experts, meet professionals from your industry, and grow your network of contacts.”

There were also themes for each day of the show: Sustainability Day, Women’s Day/Skills Day, Safety and Lifting Day, and Innovation Day, and, on the last day of the show, South African Day. The SAIMechE free-to-attend seminar topics were aligned with the theme days and many exhibitors embraced the theme days on their stands.

Attributes of a successful 2024

Asked what made Electra Mining Africa the success it was this year, Ms Hefer said that it was all about collaboration. “We have a great team, who have worked really hard to ensure the success of the show, but it’s also the collaboration we have with the industry associations, our sponsors, the trade media, suppliers, and of course, our exhibitors. We launched a brand new exhibitor training programme this year and spent three days training just over 350 of our exhibitors, and we could see the difference at the show, how they had implemented what they learned. From how they approached build-up and the effort they put into their stands, to the way that they were interacting with visitors, and how they embraced our theme days. It made a real difference. They took their exhibiting to the next level!”

Mr Corin spoke about the collective, when it came to the marketing of the show. “To achieve the number of visitors this year, yes, the marketing was good. But not just ours, as organisers. It is the collective effort that makes a show successful. The industry has really bought into this and I think that’s what makes the difference. No individual, no one organisation, can put an event like this together on their own. It was the collective effort of all stakeholders that ensured the success of this year’s show.”

The success of the 2024 show was also reflected in the 75 per cent of exhibitors who signed during the 2024 show, to exhibit at Electra Mining Africa 2026!

Fresh marketing approach

Head of marketing at Specialised Exhibitions, Natasha Heiberg, described this year’s marketing campaign for Electra Mining Africa as one of ‘adopting fresh thinking’, with new initiatives implemented and more opportunities for exhibitors to align with the show’s marketing campaign.

“We connect with our audiences through an omnichannel marketing approach, utilising both traditional and digital marketing, which works well across all our shows,”Ms Heiberg explained.“Data analytics are used extensively to support our campaign decision-making and the adoption of AI and other advanced technologies has continued to shape our campaigns.”

“We used a more light-hearted messaging style for this year’s show, across our digital platforms, which worked well for us, and we also created specific messaging to suit the identified visitor personas.”

“We also found that, following the exhibitor training, there was a much higher uptake from exhibitors to align with our visitor marketing campaign, which had a positive impact on visitor attendance.”

The new, live WhatsApp channel was also a successful initiative introduced at this year’s show. “Visitors were able to opt in to the WhatsApp channel which provided both AI and human support to help visitors find the information they needed. We were delighted by the positive uptake of this initiative, which had a less than one percent visitor opt-out rate.”

Sustainability

Montgomery Group is a signatory to the Net Zero Carbon Pledge which was launched at the COP 26 conference in Glasgow in November 2021 and further developed at the COP 27 conference in Sharm El-Sheikh in November 2022. It includes a pledge to reduce GHG emissions to achieve improvements year on year. As a division of Montgomery Group, Specialised Exhibitions aligns with this Pledge. Mr Corin said: “We make sure we do business on a sustainable basis, wherever we can.”

To support the Sustainability theme day, the first 300 visitors received a complementary Spekboom, an indigenous plant that has the amazing ability to absorb carbon. The Spekboom was purchased from the Owl Rescue Centre, a registered nonprofit company and permitted rehabilitation

facility concerned with the well-being of all owl species and wildlife in Southern Africa.

“Our chosen charity for all our shows is Shoose Life,” Ms Hefer said. “Exhibitors and visitors are encouraged to donate towards children’s durable school shoes made from 100 per cent recyclable materials — used, non-hazardous, uncontaminated PVC drip bags, oxygen masks, and associated tubes. These shoes make a direct difference in the lives of underprivileged students and we are thrilled that over 600 pairs of shoes will be going to the six schools who reached out to Shoose Life just prior to the show!”

Looking ahead to Electra Mining Africa 2026

When asked where Electra Mining Africa goes from here, and what it will look like in 2026, Ms Hefer said that the good news is

that they had already started planning for 2026 a couple of months ago. “There are many new initiatives in the pipeline, and some areas that we want to improve for the next show. We will engage with our exhibitors, visitors, sponsors, associations, and media partners to get their input too. There’s a lot in our planning mix already, but their input is also crucial for us.”

Mr Corin also reflected on what the industry might look like in 2026. “In two years’ time, new technologies will be out there, new solutions, and our exhibitors will be showcasing and demonstrating these new innovations and technologies, whatever they will be. Artificial intelligence is having a major impact, even in our business. How we communicate, how people register to attend, and tools that help both exhibitors and visitors on site. We don’t even know yet what will be available in 2026. It will be an exciting couple of years as the unknown becomes known,” Mr Corin concluded.

For further information

Natasha Heiberg

Head of Marketing | Specialised Exhibitions

Tel: +27 (0)11 835 1565

Cell: +27 (0)76 168 0762

Email: natasha.heiberg@montgomerygroup.com

Website: www.electramining.co.za