Name:  Borderland Tradeshow

        Address: 1155 Westmoreland, Suite 109          

City: El Paso, TX

CEO:  Larry Stelley

Product: Tradeshow 

Phone: 915-771-7061   Year Founded: 1986

      Over the course of 21 years, several million dollars worth of business deals have been made on the floor of the Borderland Tradeshow in El Paso, Texas.

      The annual event, which started with just 25 vendors in 1986 and grew to more than 450 in recent years, this year is March 13-14 at the El Paso Convention Center, across the Rio Grande River from the maquila center of Ciudad Juárez, Chih.

      During its two decade existence, the show has witnessed an evolution in the maquila industry. Maquilas were still in the so-called first generation phase – simple assembly – when the show debuted but have evolved to what is now known as the third generation – high technology. Show organizer Larry Stelley says the latest trend involves plastic.

      “The trend this year is for a lot more plastics,” Stelley says. “Everyone has plastics fever. I think something like 60 percent of the maquilas manufacture or use plastic in their processes. Ciudad Juárez is becoming a dynamic area for the development of plastics.”

      Borderland Tradeshow-El Paso is an industrial tradeshow and technical conference serving the maquila/production sharing industry in the state of Chihuahua and manufacturers in West Texas and New Mexico. This industrial sourcing event provides an annual opportunity for maquila/manufacturing professionals to meet face-to-face with industrial suppliers from the United States, Mexico, Canada and other countries. The latest industrial technology: equipment/machinery, products and services are marketed and displayed.

      Borderland Tradeshow-El Paso is centrally located in El Paso to serve the dynamic maquila/manufacturing operations in the region. With El Paso’s convenient location to Mexico, the maquilas offer an excellent business opportunity for industrial suppliers to build their business. The maquila/manufacturing professionals from the region find El Paso a great place to attend professional business events.

      Attending Borderland Tradeshow-El Paso this year will be engineering, purchasing and management professionals who work directly in the following manufacturing industries:

      •Aerospace/Defense/Military 

      •Apparel

      •Appliance 

      •Automotive 

      •Consumer Goods

      •Electronics 

      •Fabricated Metal Products

      •Metal Casting Services

      •Plastics 

      •Telecommunications

      Borderland Tradeshow-El Paso also presents technical seminars to help maquila/manufacturers to improve their competitiveness by identifying opportunities and implementing appropriate solutions. Stelley this year has joined forces with APICS – the Association for Operations Management, to offer technical seminars intended to help accomplish the following:

      •Streamline manufacturing processes.

      •Optimize factory operations.

      •Integrate today’s technology.

      •Facilitate vendor contacts.

      This year, Borderland Tradeshow/Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center/UTEP and the Advanced Technical Center/El Paso Community College will present a seminar showcasing Plastic Molding Technologies and Die Casting as industries that can find a growing and resourceful working environment/work force in the region. Education will help develop multi-skilled technical and engineering professionals.

      The technical support that TMAC and ATC provide is of great benefit to existing manufacturers in the region. The objective of the Industry Development Project is to showcase manufacturing technical support services to industry and schools as part of a private/public economic development effort.

      Technical seminars and equipment demonstrations will highlight plastic molding technologies/die casting and critical manufacturing/assembly processes.

      The Borderland Tradeshow traces its origin to a small exhibition by the El Paso Chamber of Commerce. At the time, Stelley worked selling commercial and industrial real estate and was chairman of the chamber’s manufacturing committee. He helped put together the show, which featured 25 vendors and a guest speaker, but says he realized then that there was opportunity to do something on a bigger scale.

      “At the time I was selling space – helping put companies into buildings,” he says. “Selling space is what we do now, too. This is just the evolution of what I had been doing.”

      The tradeshow benefits from its early date. By being held in the first quarter, companies still have money available in their budgets to make deals with vendors represented at the show. Spending decisions for the year are often made in the first quarter.

      It doesn’t hurt that businesses in the state of Chihuahua are a strong market for capital spending. The state of Chihuahua ranks first in Mexico in spending on maquila imports into Mexico.

      “We provide the space for vendors to show their equipment to buyers,” says Stelley.

      While the show enjoyed several sold- out years in a row prior to 9/11, space is still available.

      “For a while we were selling out the next year’s shows a week after one closed,” Stelley says. “But with the events of the world, things are completely different now. We still have a strong base of exhibitors; we just have to work harder at it.”