inbound
ALAN gets a little help
from some friends
Visitors to Section 2841-B—the
“address” for the American Logistics
Aid Network (ALAN) at ProMat
2011 in Chicago—quickly realized
they weren’t in for the usual trade
show experience. Instead of being
plied with literature or urged to
watch a product demonstration, visitors were invited to grab an empty
carton and pack a box of food for a
family in need. This wasn’t just a
publicity stunt: With the help of
sponsors and volunteers, the nonprofit organization delivered nearly
10,000 pounds of donated groceries
to the Greater Chicago Food
Depository, a member of the Feeding
America food bank network.
In addition to the show’s organizer,
the Material Handling Industry of
For more information about ALAN and how you can help with the group’s
domestic and international projects, go to www.alanaid.org.
Are we at ProMat
or the U.N.?
SADDLE CREEK CORP. STRATEGIC PROCUREMENT
MANAGER NANCY TIMMERMAN PITCHES IN AT THE
AMERICAN LOGISTICS AID NETWORK’S BOOTH AT
PROMAT 2011.
“End of the Line” not top-of-the-line
While browsing the bargain bins at a local discount store, we came across a
movie about—of all things—competing modes of freight transportation. “End
of the Line,” made in 1987, stars the ubiquitous Kevin Bacon, old-timer Wilfred
Brimley, and Levon Helm (yes, The Band’s drummer), along with a supporting
cast that includes Holly Hunter and Mary Steenburgen.
The plot will strike anyone in the industry as improbable at best: When a railroad announces that it’s abandoning the rail business and switching to air
freight, two lifelong employees commandeer a locomotive and drive it to corporate headquarters in Chicago. Their mission: to make a last-ditch appeal to the
chairman of the board to keep the railroad running and save the small town
whose economy depends on the rail line.
The scriptwriters clearly didn’t do their research, and some of the dialogue is
almost as silly as the plot. We bought it anyway. How often does freight make it
into film?
If you stopped and closed
your eyes for a moment at the
recent ProMat 2011 Show, you
might well have thought you’d
wandered into the United
Nations’ General Assembly
Hall. During the four-day
event, the cavernous halls of
Chicago’s McCormick Place
echoed with conversations in
Portuguese, Spanish, German,
Japanese, and a host of other
languages. The only thing that
gave the venue away was the
clacking of automated stor-age/retrieval systems and
beeping of robots.
Exhibitors we spoke with
said there were more international attendees than they had
seen in recent years, and that
the number of visitors from
Brazil and other parts of Latin
America, in particular, had
grown dramatically. Some
vendors were well-prepared to
greet them, with Spanish-and Portuguese-language
brochures, slide shows, and
videos on hand.
ProMat’s organizer, the
Material Handling Industry of
America (MHIA), goes out of
its way to welcome international visitors; the show
includes an International
Visitors Center with translators, telephones, and meeting
rooms. ProMat’s catalog even
has sections in French,
German, Spanish, Japanese,
Chinese, Italian, and Swedish,
as well as a special section that
includes exhibitors that are
interested in exporting their
products.
