30 DC VELOCITY JULY 2019 www.dcvelocity.com
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Anyone who’s been an exhibitor
at the highly successful ProMat or
Modex shows organized by MHI
has bumped into Tom Carbott at
one time or another. Carbott, who
was MHI’s senior vice president of
exhibitions before retiring at the end
of last month, was the main force
behind the shows for more than 20
years.
Carbott joined MHI in 1992 and worked his
way up the ladder, serving in progressively more
responsible positions in professional development,
marketing, industry group management, and exhibition sales and operations. During his tenure,
ProMat rose to number 51 on Trade Show Executive
magazine’s “Top 100” list of the largest expositions
and Modex moved up to number 70. In 2018, he
was named “Show Manager of the Year” by The
Expo Group, a marketing services company.
Prior to joining MHI, Carbott held sales and
marketing management positions with Occidental
Petroleum, Duff-Norton, and Portasol Inc. He is a
graduate of Wayne State University in Detroit.
Q ProMat and Modex have both been extremely successful shows. To what do you attribute
their growth and success?
A I credit the staff at MHI who help support hese events as well as the MHI member companies who are constantly developing leading-edge
innovative solutions that are helping [customers]
achieve productivity gains worldwide.
Q How has the mix of exhibitors and attendees changed in the years that you’ve been managing the shows?
A The shows have a very good balance of exist- ing solutions and emerging technologies.
For example, at ProMat 2019, you
saw a very high level of automation and mobile robotics that wasn’t
present just five years ago. Yet you
still see innovation being deployed
to traditional products like racks,
lift trucks, conveyors, and controls,
which keeps these products in the
forefront of the solutions options
as well.
Q Over the years, you’ve fielded some unusual requests from exhibitors. Can you share an
example?
A One that stands out was a request by an exhibitor at ProMat 1999, who wanted to display a live caged Bengal tiger as part of his booth.
Although I’m originally from Detroit and a big
Tigers fan, I had to say no to that one.
Q You have just retired. What will you miss most about the supply chain industry?
A The people I have been blessed to meet and work with along the way. I have been privileged to work alongside MHI staff and MHI members who have been with me in good times and bad,
and who always went the extra mile. I think that the
people in our industry are incredibly good people
… staff, members, and show attendees.
Q What advice would you give someone who’s just entering the profession?
A Get engaged with the people, industry, and associations. So much knowledge is out there,
and most people are willing to share their personal
insight. In my opinion, it is the people you meet
along the way that provide the rewards. These relationships can have a huge impact on a successful
career.
Thomas Carbott
A ALAN has always been about making a dif- ference in a big way, but at the beginning, we
thought that it would be easy! There are so many
variables that we just didn’t understand back then.
It seemed like a pretty easy two-party transaction.
After all, businesses move supplies around the
world every day, so why would trying to do something during a disaster be more challenging?
Now, we realize that most of our work involves
four or five or more components—from donors to
the nonprofit recipient to the government agency
overseeing the response to the group handling
distribution to the disaster survivors themselves.
So our mission is really a lot less about logistics
than we thought it would be, and a lot more about
relationships.
