The Plastics Industry Trade Association, founder and producer of NPE 2015, an international plastics industry show held March 23-27 in Orlando, Florida, has released final data for the show’s attendance. According to the report, NPE2015 attracted 2,029 exhibitors over 104,813 sq m of exhibit space—exceeding the previous records of 2,009 exhibitors and 96,712 sq m set in 2000.

In addition, registered attendance for NPE2015 was 65,810—19% higher than three years ago. These registrants came from 23,396 unique companies—22% more than the 19,198 companies at NPE2012—representing a substantial increase in buying potential.

International participation also set new NPE records, says the report: Nearly 44% of exhibiting companies and 26% of registrants came from outside the US. Nearly 5,000 registrants were from Latin America alone.

Exhibitors came from 37 nations in all. In descending order of number of exhibitors, the ten largest participating countries are China, Taiwan, Canada, Italy, Germany, India, Turkey, France, Switzerland, and South Korea. These figures don’t include many companies that are based in other countries but exhibited through their US subsidiaries; hence, SPI president and CEO William R. (Bill) Carteaux acclaimed the recent show as the most successful NPE by many measures.

The next edition, the NPE2018 will take place on May 7-11, 2018, at the Orange County Convention Centre in Orlando.