The mammoth construction equipment trade show known as Conexpo-Con/Agg has a rich history, paralleling and embodying the growth of the construction industry and its equipment.
The very first ancestor to Conexpo was the Road Show of the American Road Builders Association (ARBA), held in 1909 at the Ohio State Fairgrounds in Columbus. The construction industry’s first trade show, it had 40 exhibitors occupying the square footage used by the single largest exhibitor in 1975 and drew 1,000 attendees.
Its growth from there has been irregular but spectacular. In 1929, $5 million worth of equipment for 391 exhibitors arrived at the Cleveland, Ohio, Armory on some 500 railroad cars as the Road Show came into its own as an attraction. Three years later, the Road Show at the Detroit Municipal Airport featured scale models instead of heavy machinery due to the Great Depression’s impact on the industry. The 1938 Road Show in Cleveland, Ohio, totaled six acres, using both indoor and outdoor exhibits for the first time.
The 1948 Chicago Road Show featured $15 million worth of exhibits, unloaded from over 1,000 rail cars. Held at Soldier Field, the first entirely outdoor Road Show covered 770,000 square feet. The next Road Show, again in Chicago in 1957, was the largest indoor machinery exhibition ever held.
Exhibit value reached $100 million in 1969. Attendance broke 100,000 for the first time that year. In 1975, the year the event was renamed Conexpo, attendance hit 128,000—a level not broken until 2008. However, the 1975 show was afflicted by severe winter weather, prompting a move from Chicago to Houston, Texas, in 1981. That show had 850,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor displays at the Astrodome complex.
Conexpo came to the Las Vegas Convention Center in 1987 and has been there since. The 1987 event featured the first appearance of many overseas manufacturers. In 1993, even with a soft economy and Caterpillar, Deere, and other major earthmoving equipment producers not participating, exhibit space exceeded 1 million square feet for the first time thanks to numerous service-related exhibits.
The Con/Agg International Concrete and Aggregates Show, dating to 1928, was added to Conexpo in 1996. In 1999, Conexpo-Con/Agg was the largest show for its industries in the Western Hemisphere, and the largest industry trade show of any kind in North America, with 1,882 exhibits; 1.7 million square feet; and 124,000 attending. This year, 3 million square feet of exhibits from 2,000 exhibitors are expected to draw 140,000 people.
Conexpo has always been about showcasing state-of-the-art equipment. The 1909 Road Show featured such breakthroughs as 8-ton dump wagons, self-propelled rollers, and concrete mixers that could crank out 8 cubic yards per hour. In 1963, it was noted that there had been more advances in equipment design since the previous show in 1957 than in the 30 years previous, including more makes and models; increases in horsepower, capacity, and tire size; rubber-tired prime movers with various trailers; and operator comfort and convenience.
About the HCEA
The Historical Construction Equipment Association (HCEA) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the history of the construction, dredging and surface mining equipment industries. With over 3,500 members in a dozen countries, our activities include operation of National Construction Equipment Museum and archives in Bowling Green, Ohio; publication of a quarterly magazine, Equipment Echoes, from which this text is adapted, and hosting an annual working exhibition of restored construction equipment. Individual annual memberships are $45 within the U.S. and $65 elsewhere. Our next International Convention and Old Equipment Exposition will be held August 28-30, 2026, at Concordia, Kansas. We seek to develop relationships in the equipment manufacturing industry, and we offer a college scholarship for engineering students. Information is available at www.hcea.net, or by calling 419.352.5616 or e-mailing [email protected].
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About the Author
Tom Berry
Tom Berry is archivist for the Historical Construction Equipment Association (HCEA). Information is available at www.hcea. net, or by calling 419.352.5616 or e-mailing [email protected].