By Sharyn Macnamara
Mining and Technical exhibitions (MTE) celebrated its 30th birthday at the Italian Club in Bedfordview on 11 October, 2023. The company has serviced the mining sector for 30 years now, while expanding its offering to other industries. “Steadfast relationships and agile adaptability have been the secret to the company’s success,” said Andrew Macnamara, operations director at MTE on the day.
MTE celebrates thirty successful years in the mining industry. Image credit: ©African Mining, incorporating Mining Mirror
Macnamara reminisced with loyal exhibitors who have supported and booked stands at MTE’s tradeshows – some for more than 13 years and others for as long as the company has been in existence – as he chatted through the history and the evolution of MTE over the years.
Macnamara reminisced with loyal exhibitors who have supported MTE and booked stands at the company’s tradeshows – some for more than 13 years and others for as long as the company has been in existence. Image credit: ©African Mining, incorporating Mining Mirror
In 2004, Interact Media Defined (IMD) bought over ‘Mining Exhibitions cc’ from Tony Wightman – previously a manager for Stewarts & Lloyds, who founded the company in 1993 and built the travelling exhibitions concept of ‘face-to-face’, high-impact exhibitions on strong industry relationships.
After a rebrand in 2005, MTE drove this sound business concept and philosophy hard and built additional capacity with the purchase of more equipment, added more tradeshows to its calendar and pushed beyond South African borders further into the SADC region.
“The MTE journey was not without its challenges,” said Macnamara. From 2008 to 2017 the industry saw recession, commodity price crashes and retrenchments and the sector itself had evolved dramatically – mines had become hard-core businesses run with safety, productivity and efficiency top of mind. It became more difficult for suppliers to access decision makers in these environments ‘driven by the clock’.
Andrew Macnamara, operations director at MTE. Image credit: ©African Mining, incorporating Mining Mirror
From 2018, with the assistance of feedback from the industry – from product and service providers to the end users themselves – MTE put a ‘brand refresh’ together to adapt to and align with the new era of mining in order to sustain and grow the business. MTE now moved to build relationships with the contemporary mining management hierarchy with a new ‘solution driven’ spin on conversations. The target market had expanded to new disciplines – over and above the general manager position, these now included engineering managers, procurement managers and safety managers.
MTE also investigated different marketing avenues and industries to expand into. So, strategically MTE had started ‘talking to’ additional and affiliated industries including the built and cement; sugar; ports, harbours and logistics; including the paper and pulp sectors.
With the changing requirements of global economies – new operations extracting across new commodities were now added to the MTE portfolio too: bulk commodities like coal, gold, iron-ore, manganese and copper were now joined by diamond, platinum, PGMs and energy minerals and metals.
In parallel, MTE stretched its muscle further into Africa – the company moved from covering South Africa and Botswana into countries like Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Zambia.
Operationally, MTE also evolved to incorporate new value adds for its valued customers – the suppliers of innovation to industry. These included: new combo tours (offering suppliers a cost-effective, impact-filled week away from the office to see a number of decision makers in operations in outlying areas and over border); expo layout adjustments were made to include free-standing options for those suppliers wanting more floor space and guided walkways were added to move visitors past each and every supplier exhibiting (for shows of under 60 suppliers); ‘designation identifiers/badges’ to be worn by visitors to help suppliers ‘spot’ the decision makers they wanted to approach in the throngs of people now visiting the shows were created and a new MTE supplier App to assist with disseminating pertinent logistical information for events was launched – and today is being further developed.
“It was the Covid19 pandemic that would push MTE’s adaptability to the limits,” said Macnamara. The lockdown forced the company to work out new ways of maintaining its relationships and new methods of disseminating relevant industry innovation through the company’s product portfolio – and the MTE product blast and product portal were born.
MTE has evolved to stay future fit and there is nothing more compelling than a testimony from those that have moved with a company through its evolution to areas of new reach:
Sihle Maseko, sales manager, CS at Bühler, told fellow exhibitors that the MTE expos have aided with the expansion of the Bühler business. He added that the expos not only offer the right customer contacts at operational level, but also allow for a cross-pollination of ideas and the building of partnerships between suppliers themselves too.
Sihle Maseko, sales manager, CS at Bühler, noted that the MTE expos have aided with the expansion of the business. Image credit: ©African Mining, incorporating Mining Mirror
Wolfgang Dumfart, sales manager at Kraus and Naimer spoke at the event about the company’s long-standing relationship with MTE. For over 13 years, the company has exhibited with the travelling exhibitions company. He noted the fact that smaller companies, in particular, with limited resources can benefit from the MTE relationships and the high-impact expo philosophy. (Listen to what he had to say in an interview after he presented to peers. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7117826048863408128 )
After sixteen years on the road in Africa, Macnamara concluded saying, “Covid-19 taught us that things can change at a moment’s notice. It is only with strong, reliable industry relationships and expert supplier partners; the wisdom and guidance of leaders in the business; an innovative and open mindset; the agility and support of a team and a constantly developing adaptability that survival in this tough global and local environment of peaks and valleys is possible.
He concluded, “We thank all of those involved in our past and present journey for the part they have played in MTE’s longevity and successes. Watch this space as we take our working philosophy to new territories, in different ways in the future!”