Record-breaking numbers 

As Africa’s largest platform for occupational safety and health (OSH) products and services, A-OSH Expo 2023 was successful on all fronts, proving its high popularity with the market. The co-located show, Firexpo, also had a stellar showing.

A-OSH Expo 2023, held at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand from 6 to 8 June 2023 – co-located with Securex South Africa, Facilities Management Expo, and Firexpo – welcomed a record number of 4,005 industry professionals. A record combined 11,465 visitors attended the four co-located shows.

“The feedback we received from our visitors and exhibitors was unanimously in favour of the continued co-location of A-OSH Expo with Securex South Africa, Facilities Management Expo, and Firexpo. This allows visitors to not only source a wide range of safety solutions from the A-OSH Expo exhibitors, but furthermore to find products and services in the security, facilities management, and fire detection/management sectors,” says Mark Anderson, portfolio director at Specialised Exhibitions (a division of the Montgomery Group), which organises the show.

The proof is in the pudding

Visitor responses to this year’s A-OSH Expo were overwhelmingly positive.

“It was my first time at A-OSH Expo, and I made very good connections,” says Francois Coetzee of Namaqua Gas.

“We came to see the variety of PPE on display and also to look at courses on offer, and we made some really great connections,” relate Paul van der Berg and Desegen Pillay from Universal Systems/Integrators.

“The show was great. The products from Dromex and Kaliber Footwear were very impressive,” says Adele Robinson from Telegenx Trading.

“We’ve been exhibiting at A-OSH Expo for the past 11 years, as we believe it’s important to expose people to the products that will maximise their protection in the workplace. This year we focused on our mask filters and gas detection range, and we had high-quality visitors coming through our stand,” says Sagaran Chetty of Dräger.

“This was our first time exhibiting at A-OSH Expo. As a Belgian manufacturer, we are actively looking for resellers in South Africa and saw A-OSH Expo as the perfect platform to launch our products into the country,” notes Wim Vanderschueren from Safety Jogger. “All the visitors to our stand were very enthusiastic, and I can only say positive things about the event. We will definitely be back next year.”

Opportunities to learn about industry trends and challenges

In addition to the OSH products and services on display by the 86 local and international exhibitors, A-OSH Expo featured two free-to-attend seminar theatres — the Saiosh Seminar Theatre and the Working at Height and Safety Seminar Theatre (powered by SafetyCloud) — together with the Saiosh Health & Safety Conference.

“We were thrilled to welcome SafetyCloud as the sponsor of the Working at Height and Safety Seminar Theatre this year. Formed 72 years ago, SafetyCloud (previously NOSA) remains the industry leader in occupational health, safety, and environmental training. The organisation has helped over 20,000 businesses to build their safety cultures and create healthy, happy work environments,” says Anderson.

“Both of the free-to-attend seminar theatres were packed to capacity over the three days of the expo, and Saiosh CEO, Neels Nortjé, reported that the Saiosh Conference was oversubscribed, with extra chairs being brought into the venue to accommodate the additional delegates. This is a clear indication that there is an enormous hunger from industry for high-quality and informative content,” he emphasises.

Firexpo 2023: building a portal for fire detection and management solutions

Firexpo celebrated its second birthday this year as visitor numbers increased by 200 people at the 2023 event. “The crossover between the four
co-located shows is large, and we found that many visitors who had originally come to source products and services from the other three shows then came to see what the Firexpo exhibitors had on offer,” says Anderson.

“We are previous Securex exhibitors but haven’t been at the show for a few years. However, this year we joined forces with our supplier Carrier Fire and Security South Africa (rebranding as Kidde Commercial), and taking a stand at Firexpo was the best decision we could have made,” enthuses G2 Fire’s Nichola Allen.

“Our stand was extremely busy and we saw a mixture of end users, insurance companies, installers, and representatives from government departments, including the Department of Correctional Services,” Allen continues. “We were thrilled with the co-location of Firexpo with Securex,
A-OSH Expo, and Facilities Management Expo — it is the ideal mix and brings in potential customers from all our target markets.”

Anderson says that the success of Firexpo can be attributed to the exhibitors, the visitors seeking fire safety solutions, the industry body partners, exhibition sponsors, and media partners. “Thanks to all the stakeholders, Firexpo and the co-located expos were so successful this year, and the demand from exhibitors has been so high, that we will be expanding into Hall 4 for next year’s event, which will be held at Gallagher Convention Centre from 28 to 30 May 2024,” he adds.

Organisations wishing to exhibit at A-OSH Expo or Firexpo 2024 can contact Zelda Jordaan on zelda.jordaan@montgomerygroup.com to book a space or capitalise on a sponsorship opportunity.