Business-benefit guarantee challenges restaurateurs not to find value at food show
By Cathy Chatfield-Taylor
The main attraction on the save-the-date postcard for the Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo (www.westernfoodexpo.com), Aug. 26–28, 2006, at the Los Angeles Convention Center, was not the new celebrity chef kitchen, the new best product awards, the new wine and food festival, or any of the other new ingredients added to give the show a lift. It was a big square box with a promise: If you don’t find at least one new product, new vendor, new concept or new contact that benefits your business, we’ll refund your money.
“If attendees ask, ‘Is it worth my money?’ We answered the question in advance,” says Ron Mathews, Event Director for Norwalk, CT-based Reed Exhibitions (www.reedexpo.com), which produces and manages the show. “If I was willing to take the risk, it had to be front and center.”
Mathew’s “Business Benefit Guarantee” was backed by Reed Exhibitions’ $300,000 investment in revitalizing the show. After a year of market research and collaboration with the sponsor, the California Restaurant Association (CRA, www.calrest.org), Mathew’s 15-person team unveiled the theme, “It’s about new. It’s about you. It’s about time.” It was time for a change.
When 9/11 slammed the oven door on food shows, this show fell flatter than a failed soufflé. By 2005, five years after Reed Exhibitions bought it, attendance had plunged 40 percent, and the exhibit floor had shriveled 46 percent to 101,390 net square feet. The national-caliber show was now a regional meeting with lukewarm support.
A menu of new products, entertainment and competitions put the pizzazz back in the show. The “Hot Spot Culinary Demonstration Extravaganza” brought in Iron Chef Cat Cora, Thai Chef Tommy Tang and Guy’s Big Bite Host Guy Fieri, among other celebrity chefs. They turned a lone stage for local cooks encircled by folding chairs into a dynamic attraction, with a custom-designed kitchen stage surrounded by leather lounge chairs.
“It was five times more expensive than any other culinary theater we had done in the past,” Mathews says. Sponsorships covered some costs, but the investment capital paid the bulk.
The New Product Gallery, offered free to exhibitors and non-exhibitors alike, expanded from 25 products in a glass-shelf display case ($200 per product in 2005) to 135 products on table-top displays. From 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. daily, exhibitors passed out food and beverage samples, staffers handed out ballots, and tasters cast about 1,400 votes for their favorite products in eight categories, culminating in the People’s Choice Awards.
Adding a much-desired but never-presented product line, the Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival introduced wine tasting from 65 vineyards. Mathew’s team created and launched the event to add content for the show. Staged in a separate hall, the festival attracted about 1,200 consumers (tickets priced at $60-$225) and 1,200 show attendees (discounted tickets at $10).
Competitions between coffee makers (The Ultimate Barista Challenge) and pizzas (Pizza Pavilion and California Pizza Championships) gave sponsors visibility and attendees more free samples. Throughout the show, the 16-by-21 foot “Cuisine Screen” broadcast interviews and news from media sponsor National Restaurant News.
“We’ve added the ‘wow’ factor to the trade show,” says CRA President & CEO Jot Condie. “They came to learn what’s new and dynamic in the industry — best practices, up-and-coming trends, equipment they need. It’s a one-stop shop.”
The show reversed its decline, gaining 7 percent more attendees, 6 percent more exhibiting companies and 2 percent more square footage. “The needle had been moving backwards for five years,” Mathews says. “We moved it forward just a little bit.”
Though he did insure against the possibility of claims on the money-back guarantee, there were no takers.
Cathy Chatfield-Taylor is a San Francisco Bay-area freelance writer/editor. E-mail cathy@cc-tunlimited.com.
Reed exhibitions’ strategy Goal: Reverse the 5-year decline of the Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo. Objective: Deliver fun, excitement, new products and content. Strategy: Do market research and focus groups to discover what restaurateurs want. Tactics: Introduce celebrity cooking demos, a new product gallery, cooking competitions, wine tasting and best new product awards. Results: The show added attendees (7%), exhibitors (6 companies) and space (2%).
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