IDG World Expo Signs Deal to Expand into Robotics Industry

Technology tradeshow producer IDG World Expo has signed a strategic partnership to expand into the nascent but growing personal robotics industry.

The agreement with Robotics Trends, a Westboro, Mass.-based integrated media firm targeting the service and mobile robotics industry, calls on IDG, headquartered in neighboring Framingham, to help out with Robotics Trends' current and future tradeshows.

Robotics Trends, launched last October, is led by integrated media veterans Eliot Weinman, its CEO, and Dan Kara, its president. The pair in 1998 co-founded Intermedia Group, a collection of information technology-related Web sites and events, which in 2001 was sold to Alan Meckler's Internet.com, a forerunner of Jupitermedia. In 1989, Weinman also founded the Software Productivity Group, a producer of publications, conferences and research, selling it in 1996. Kara served as that company's senior vice president and CTO.

Robotics Trends has two events planned so far: the business-oriented Emerging Robotics Technology & Applications Conference, scheduled March 9-10 at the Hyatt Regency in nearby Cambridge; and the larger consumer-oriented RoboNexus, set for Oct. 21-23 at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

Weinman said IDG's tradeshow expertise will be helpful in establishing robotics events internationally. He said interest is particularly strong in Asia, especially Japan, which is trying to transition from being a world leader in industrial robots to a world leader in personal robots.

Weinman said the personal, service and mobile robotics industry is slated to grow from $500 million today to a $5-billion market by 2005. By 2005, the market for personal robots is expected to surpass industrial robots, which until recently have accounted for most of the business. The industry's growth has been driven by advances in microprocessors, speech and vision recognition, GPS, autonomous navigation, wireless communication, operating systems and power supply technology.

"We look forward to working with Eliot Weinman and his industry veteran team at Robotics Trends Inc.," IDG World Expo President David Korse said in a statement. "As a producer of IT-focused conferences and tradeshows, we are excited to enter the fast-growing robotics market and create a global event platform for the clients of Robotics Trends."

A number of Japanese manufacturers, including Honda, are entering the market now that the price of technology has become cheap enough that robots can be used for entertainment, education, security and assisting the handicapped. Sony's AIBO robot dog, for example, is now on its third iteration.

"The beauty of it is, this is not an IT market. It's a new emerging market," Weinman said. "When you see what's coming out of the labs — vacuum cleaners, toys — you're seeing the next generation of enabling robotics. There are thousands of potential applications."