Image courtesy of Intermat
While visitor numbers at Intermat 2024 dropped significantly since the last edition in 2018, exhibitors made on average 30% more contacts per day and media coverage almost doubled.
Intermat’s triumphant return to the construction exhibition scene in late April after a six-year hiatus defied pre-show jitters. Despite declining visitor numbers since 2012 and the 2021 cancellation due to COVID-19, the event successfully dispelled concerns about its future alongside bauma and CONEXPO in the industry’s ‘big three’ construction exhibitions. Focusing on net-zero construction equipment and technology, and with a streamlined four-day format, Intermat 2024 offered a platform for a buzzing industry eager to reconnect in Paris.
While visitor numbers reached 127,500, a 26% decrease from 2018’s 173,000, the organisers reported that exhibitors made an average of 30% more contacts per day, suggesting a shift towards quality over quantity of visitor interactions.
In general, our clients at Intermat 2024 felt the event was worthwhile for engaging face-to-face with potential and existing French customers. Official figures revealed that 79% of visitors came from France, with the remaining 21% from international markets.
However, from a media relations perspective, they felt that Intermat 2024 had an especially strong global reach and were delighted to see so many familiar faces from the international construction trade press in person again.
Data from media monitoring tool Meltwater proved that Intermat 2024 had managed to capture the international construction media’s attention with mentions of the exhibition recorded in 4,400 articles in April 2024 compared to 2,260 in April 2018 – and by publications from 252 different countries worldwide!
The bulk of the media coverage originated from the USA, South Korea, and the UK but on an individual news outlet level, a Meltwater search found that the publications mentioning Intermat the most were KHL (including Construction Briefing, International Rental News, and Power Progress), along with Noticias Maquinaria, AC Presse, and Movicarga.
Interestingly, Meltwater attributed 30% of the coverage to ‘green technology’, particularly highlighting advancements in hydrogen power, with an additional 20% focusing on other equipment innovations.
So while our clients have yet to see whether the new contacts met will convert into customers, from a PR point of view, if you want to get the message about your innovations to a global construction audience, Intermat is absolutely still worth it!
Intermat will return to Paris again in April 2027. Until then, get in touch to discuss how SE10 can support your communications strategy at other construction exhibitions.
Get in touch for a FREE construction equipment PR consultation.
By Hannah Kitchener
Associate Director
About the Author
Hannah is an associate director based in the UK, who leverages her strategic, campaign management, and written content creation expertise to support clients in the construction, energy, and materials handling sectors across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). With a professional qualification in Journalism from the National Council of Training for Journalism in the UK, Hannah has strong interviewing and writing skills that enable her to craft compelling content for clients across multiple platforms. Her experience and knowledge of the construction, energy, and materials handling sectors, meanwhile, have helped her build a strong network of trade media contacts across the EMEA region, enabling her to secure meaningful media coverage for clients. In addition to her journalism training, Hannah’s academic qualifications have further honed her ability to communicate across cultures and languages. Having studied French and German at BA level, and with an MA in Translation, Hannah has a passion for inter-cultural communication, which is invaluable to SE10 in executing PR campaigns across multiple markets and in several languages.
