The latest IFPEX (International Fluid Power Exhibition '92), the British fluid power industry's own four‐yearly exhibition, was staged in Birmingham last May, providing a suitable opportunity for a review of the industry. The exhibition itself was judged a success from some of the orders placed and by attracting the same number of visitors, “almost 7,000 buyers and specifiers”, as when the exhibition was last held in 1988. Many industrial exhibitions this year have had substantially lower attendances than predicted.