One week until IMTS and I’m pumped. For me this is a show, a spectacle a conversation, an old home week and a roving seminar in machinery, tooling and software.

It is also a huge test. For Today’s Machining World, it is time to match ourselves up with the other publications in the field. We are still considered newcomers by some, and our approach is so different from the competition that I am anxious to sample our reach and acceptance on the IMTS floor.

It is certainly a physical test. Walking a million square feet every day for a week on leg killing concrete will test my stamina. The noise of the machines will be a constant energy drain, and the lighting will tax my uncertain vision. Name recall is another test, particularly when so many people know me from the magazine and Graff-Pinkert. I may have met them once and long since forgotten their name and face.

But what the hell. This going to be one gigantic festival of my chosen business. I get the chance to do IMTS, and I’m going to go for it with all I’ve got.