April 2004
Best Practices: Iraqi coup
U.S. DOC-certified Outreach 2004 builds international coalition to explore partnerships
By Cathy Chatfield-Taylor

As the only independent show organizer to seek U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) certification for an exhibition focused on rebuilding Iraq, Jerry Kallman Sr. admits, “Maybe we were the only ones crazy enough to do it.”

Crazy like a fox.

Organized by the Kallman Group LLC of Waldwick, NJ, Outreach 2004 brought in three times as many delegates and half again as many exhibitors as expected at the conference, held Jan. 11–13 at the Amman International Motor Show (AIMS) facility in Jordan’s capital.

The event’s value to Iraqi reconstruction is undisputed. “We were really pleased,” says Don Huber, Project Manager for the U.S. DOC’s Trade Fair Certification and Export Promotion Services. “We thought the Kallman Group did an excellent job with the mechanics of organizing the event.”

To pull it together in the four months after receiving certification, Kallman worked with the DOC in Washington, DC, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Baghdad, the Jordanian-American Business Association (JABA) in Amman, the U.S. Embassy in Amman, and the Netherlands Council for Trade Promotion (NCH) in The Hague. Their combined efforts attracted 1,200 delegates and 283 exhibitors representing about 300 companies from 21 nations, including a showcase of 26 Iraqi companies.

DOC helped promote the event to coalition country ambassadors with a letter signed by U.S. Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans. “They were going in with $18.6 billion, and they needed a forum to get the message out that this would not just be American companies taking a bite of the apple,” Kallman says. In addition, an e-mail promotion from the DOC to 70,000 companies included a banner advertisement linked to the show Web site (www.kallman.com/Outreach).

CPA helped put together nine workshops and three plenary sessions, with opening remarks by retired Adm. David Nash, Director of CPA’s Project Management Office, and presentations by American companies managing reconstruction contracts. “After every session they were mobbed by the audience with questions and wanting to exchange business cards,” Kallman says.

The U.S. Embassy in Amman “ran interference” with the Jordanian government when a scheduling glitch nearly cancelled Outreach. A Turkish organizer moved a previously scheduled “Rebuilding Iraq” event from April 2004 to December 2003 in a maneuver to preempt The Kallman Group. To avoid the 90-day rule against events addressing the same theme, Kallman repositioned his as a regional conference. (In the end, the Turkish organizer cancelled Rebuilding Iraq and took a pavilion at Outreach.)

Kallman chose Amman as the venue for obvious reasons. As long as Iraq is unstable, bringing foreign companies to an exhibition there is a challenge he is unwilling to take on. In fact, when asked to participate in another trade event there, he declined. “I had no need to put myself at risk,” he says.

Security at AIMS was tight. The same company that protects the U.S. Embassy provided guards at every entrance to the facility and patrolled the parking area. They inspected bags and scanned individuals with wands. The measures were reassuring, but Kallman maintains, “There was no feeling of threat,” due in part to the pro-American attitude in Jordan.

Problems ranged from unreliable phone service and delayed shuttles running between the exhibition and the Grand Hyatt where the conference was held, to maintaining international standards for cleanliness in the facility. Most were nothing more than an annoyance.

Now that he’s branded Outreach in the region, Kallman is considering the potential for future events, perhaps focused on individual industries and scaled down to fit the Hyatt, which would improve profitability.

“We took on the project with a mix of altruism and the intention of making a profit,” Kallman says. “Although we spent a ton of money getting the Iraqi entrepreneurs to the show (in advertising and paying their expenses), and we had some major unanticipated costs, the idea of losing money never entered our heads.”

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