January 2004
Best Practices: Keep on truckin'
Conversion from closed to open event has grown NTEA show floor by 173 percent and attendance by 47 percent in five years
By Cathy Chatfield-Taylor

On the verge of an economic downturn that would curtail equipment sales by up to 50 percent, the National Truck Equipment Association (NTEA) made a bold move. It opened the exclusive Work Truck Show to nonmembers. The change grew the show floor by 173 percent to accommodate 35 percent more exhibiting companies and 47 percent more attendees in the last five years.

“We have a healthy sense of paranoia that causes us to look for ways to innovate,” says Steve Carey, Meetings and Member Services Director for NTEA, Farmington Hills, MI.

NTEA’s annual trade show for commercial trucks and equipment had been a space-controlled event for its 1,600 member companies. OEMs could take up to 1,500 square feet, and everyone else was limited to a maximum of 400 square feet. Every third year, space restrictions were removed to allow large equipment displays, and nonmembers were invited to participate on a limited basis. Facing a mature market with flat growth in the late ’90s, the NTEA did some soul searching.

“We believed that the market dynamics, consolidation and mature distribution channel that were facing our core membership would begin to adversely affect the long-term viability of our events,” Carey says. “We also identified a shift in market strategies from our manufacturer members to exert stronger influence over the end purchasers of the vehicles.”

In 1998, the board voted to “implode” the existing event model and create an industry marketplace. The conversion was timed to coincide with the large equipment display scheduled for 2000. NTEA would offer an expanded educational program and aggressively market the event to nonmembers.

The concept was introduced at the 1999 event. Manufacturers embraced the change, but distributors saw it as a threat — a move that would enable manufacturers to go around them and sell directly to end-users. NTEA worked to overcome resistance with nonstop communications, continually selling the benefits of “channel partnerships.”

“We have struggled to overcome some sense of disconnect, primarily from our distributor members, even though there are now more opportunities for them to benefit.” Carey says. A member-only preshow networking event and other perks have helped to mollify the distributors.

To attract nonmembers, NTEA used traditional attendance promotions such as trade advertising, direct mail, e-mail, a Web site and cooperative marketing with exhibitors. But the real boon was strategic partnering with other industry associations. By 2003, NTEA had forged relationships with 13 organizations whose members could attend the NTEA convention at discounted rates.

NTEA has honed its message to hammer home the value of the event. “We are very focused on what differentiates our event from any other. That is what we market and promote. It also happens to be aligned with the core competency and fundamental strengths of the association,” Carey says.

That core competency is providing hands-on technical support. The Work Truck Show and 39th Annual NTEA Convention, held March 2–5, 2003, at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, offered more than 30 educational sessions, compared with a dozen five years ago.

Despite a two-year recession, the NTEA has grown the event from 3,907 attendees, 319 exhibiting companies and 56,000 net square feet in 1999 to 5,737 attendees, 431 exhibiting companies and 152,960 net square feet in 2003. Growth has come at a price. Promotional costs are 500 percent higher than in 1999. And production costs have grown in synch with size. Still, NTEA hasn’t increased booth or registration fees in three years.

“The growth of the event is generating more revenue for the association, but we’re not as profitable on a percentage basis as we were prior to the transition,” Carey says. NTEA reinvests the revenue in member benefits, such as industry analysis, a call center staffed with engineers, and regional meetings to foster manufacturer-distributor relations.

“I don’t believe our convention and exhibition would be in the position we are now in without changing in our strategic direction,” Carey says.

Cathy Chatfield-Taylor is a freelance writer/editor. E-mail cathy@cc-tunlimited.com.