September 2003
Best Practices: Fuel to the fire

Cygnus shuts down regional show and launches a national event, nearly doubling its size while drawing 45 percent of attendees from outside the region

By Cathy Chatfield-Taylor

When Cygnus Expositions President Jeff Price arrived at the scene of Fire Rescue West in early 2001, the 24-year-old show was smoldering, so he did what he had to do: Fan the flame and re-ignite the regional show as a national event.

The first annual Firehouse World Exposition & Conference, held Feb. 18–20, 2003, in San Diego, flared to nearly double the size of the last Fire Rescue West, held Feb. 12–14, 2002, in San Jose, CA. Fueled by the Firehouse brand name, the show complements the Cygnus Public Safety Group’s Firehouse magazine, Firehouse.com portal and national Firehouse Expo, held every July at the Baltimore Convention Center.

“Some people might think of this as a repositioning, but frankly, we shut down one show and launched a brand new show,” Price says. “It has a new name, a new location and a new focus.”

Cygnus Expositions bought Fire Rescue West in 1999, before Price was on board. At the time, it was in the red and run by volunteers. The new show manager, Rob Brice, staged a strong event in 2000 — with record participation by 4,517 attendees and 322 exhibiting companies — by gaining the trust of regional supporters.

“I listened to those industry experts. We got back to basics, and from there we were able to steer the show in the direction we wanted to go,” Brice says.

That direction was national. In 2001, Price and Brice set their sites on building the No. 1 national trade show for the fire services industry. To achieve the goal, they had to do three things: leverage the Firehouse brand name, move the show to a first-tier West coast destination, and update the content to appeal to a wider audience.

Meanwhile, facing competition from a new regional show in nearby Sacramento, Fire Rescue West began to flame out. By 2002, the show lost one-fourth of its attendees and one-third of its exhibitors, but it still eked out a small profit. That bought enough time for show management to get positioned for the launch of Firehouse World.

Renaming the show and choosing the San Diego location were “no brainers.” To update the content, they worked with the editorial staff of Firehouse and Firehouse.com. The addition of hands-on training in mock fire scenarios proved a popular draw for attendees from across the state and the country.

“Collaboration among our divisions added fuel to the fire of growth in all of our properties,” says Brice.

Cygnus pumped 75 percent more money into the promotional budget for a national campaign, which was supported by key industry associations. Flagship exhibitors at Firehouse Expo bought into the concept, since the show would be separated from the East coast event by six months and 3,000 miles. “We talked to our customers, and they told us there was a void west of the Mississippi for a national quality event,” Price says.

In the end, 80 percent of Fire Rescue West’s exhibitors participated in the inaugural Firehouse World, which drew 325 exhibiting companies and occupied 84,500 net square feet. While only 40 percent of the regional show’s attendees returned, Firehouse World more than made up for it with 5,197 attendees, 45 percent of whom came from outside the region.

Overcome by the Firehouse World backdraft, the Sacramento competition has pulled out, canceling its 2004 show. “Now we have the opportunity to draw even more people,” says Brice. “Where we had a market split before, we now own the market.”

Though a marked success by any measure, the idea of Firehouse World will need to spread like wildfire if Cygnus is to achieve its goal of overtaking the current market leaders, who bring in 1,200–2,000 booths and 20,000-plus attendees. Price and Brice give it five years.