Suppliers throughout the material handling supply chain descended upon Atlanta for MHI’s Modex 2016 tradeshow, which took place April 4-7 at the Georgia World Congress Center. Attendees from various industries, including food and beverage, also were present to learn about the latest trends and innovations that are shaping the supply chain.

The tradeshow featured more than 800 exhibitors, 100-plus educational sessions as well as numerous networking opportunities. It also welcomed powerful keynote addresses from industry executives, such as Peter Diamandis, chairman and chief executive officer of the XPRIZE Foundation; Jack Allen, senior director of global logistics and supply chain operations for Cisco; George W. Prest, chief executive officer of MHI, with Scott Sopher, principal of Deloitte Consulting LLP; and Kevin O’Leary, entrepreneur, investor and Mr. Wonderful from ABC’s “Shark Tank.”

At the show, MHI also announced the winners of the 2016 MHI Innovation Award. Given during MHI Industry Night, the award featured three categories: Best New Innovation, Best Innovation of an Existing Product and Best IT Innovation. A total of 98 innovations were submitted by Modex 2016 exhibitors for the competition with four finalists named in February in each category.

The following were the recipients of those categories:

• Fetch Robotics, Best New Innovation Award for Robot & Follow Pick
• Intelligrated Inc., Best Innovation of an Existing Product for Intellisort Cross-Belt – Dynamic Discharge Compensation
• RAM Mounting Systems, Best IT Innovation Award for IntelliSkin & GDS Technology

Free to all Modex attendees was the Modex Supply Chain Education Summit track. The educational sessions addressed various topics impacting the supply chain industry, such as attracting demographics that, historically, haven’t comprised a significant portion of the supply chain workforce.

Next year, MHI will welcome supply chain industry members to ProMat 2017, which will take place April 3-6, 2017, at McCormick Place in Chicago. For more information, visit promatshow.com.