September 2005
Building a plan for 2006
Leading industry execs from 8 organizations share their strategies for next year, including growth projections, leading competitive issues, major changes and key objectives
By Maxine Golding



When the sun set on the year 2001, few signs were hopeful of a fast rebound for the exposition industry.

Four years after the economy’s dive and 9/11’s impact, the outlook is much brighter. The exposition business appears to have turned the corner in 2003, come back strongly in 2004, and achieved full recovery and some growth in 2005. Just imagine what’s in store in 2006.

That’s what EXPO did, asking eight show producers — for-profit, association and corporate, representing business, trade and consumer shows — for their plans for next year’s shows. Propelled by fresh thinking and armed with innovative technology, they’re bracing to tackle five competitive challenges. In shorthand, think SCOPE:
• Sophistication of audiences and their nuanced demands for hands-on learning.
• Costs to exhibit and attend, and value pricing to counter these fast-rising expenses.
• Optimizing everyone’s time and experience through vertical “shows within shows.”
• Proliferation of new sources of content and contacts that vie with shows for attention.
• Education that showcases innovations and products in places far beyond meeting rooms.

“With consolidation and turnover in most of our industries, to stay the same you have to add business, and to grow you need to add a lot of new business,” says Margaret Pederson, President, Primedia Business Exhibitions. To make that happen in 2006, her No. 1 goal is developing a culture in which people will take risks, even if they don’t always succeed.

“How we meet these competitive issues head on is all about providing a return on investment,” says Eileen Baird, Industry Vice President and Show Manager, International Vision Expo/Reed Exhibitions. The growth strategy she outlines is ambitious: to create new and custom programs that run parallel to the business and educational objectives of exhibitors and attendees.

That’s a tall order to plan for. Here’s how shows are doing it for 2006. 

Margaret Pederson
President
Primedia Business Exhibitions (sold to PBI Media Holdings in August 2005)
www.primediabusiness.com
Based: Stamford, CT
Largest trade shows: Entertainment Technology Week 2004: 9,342 attendees, 335 exhibitors in 113,650 NSF. Waste Expo 2005: 9,799 attendees, 460 exhibitors in 196,000 NSF. Club Industry 2004: 7,015 attendees, 230 exhibitors in 89,400 NSF.

What are the leading competitive issues for your shows?
1. Time poverty. It’s a challenge getting people out of the office and traveling; they have to multi-task faster.

2. The uncertainty [in effectiveness] of e-mail and fax marketing.

3. International visas. Although this issue varies in importance according to the show, it impacts not just the attendee, but also the exhibitor. There’s the problem of getting both the person and product into the United States at the same time, amid the appropriate measures for security.

What growth do you project in 2006?
As we’re in mature, stable industries, we project single-digit growth, whether low or high single digit will vary by industry.

What are your key objectives for 2006?
• Provide the appropriate value equation for customers. Exhibitors and attendees are becoming more sophisticated and targeted in why they participate in exhibitions. So it’s really important to focus on their specific reasons for being there  — new product information, bleeding technology or buying programs, for example.

• Collaborate closely with our publications — which can get industry expertise quickly and effectively — on new events that answer an important industry need.

• Integrate products within shows. For Entertainment Technology Week, which focuses on lighting, sound and projection for live events, product convergence is the key trend. So our objective is to show products interacting by setting up live sound stages as performance theaters. Similarly, hands-on conference sessions will demonstrate how the products work and impact one another.

What’s changing?
We’ll be offering more depth, such as new pavilions and networking events for segmented groups. In the past, the focus might have been on exhibitors and attendees only; now we may facilitate bringing together exhibitors with exhibitors, attendees with attendees.

Our marketing, too, is growing more sophisticated, creative, comprehensive and targeted; we’re going after specific lists for different market segments. Where our marketing plans used to be fairly standard, they’re evolving into something far more customized.

My inspiration is Amazon.com; if you buy one book, they suggest another you would like. It’s hard for exhibition organizers to get to that point, even though we have booths, conference tracks, magazines, e-newsletters, and Webinars. What will make life easier for our customers?

What new products are you planning?
In most of our industries, we see consolidation and turnover. To stay the same, you have to add new business, and to grow, you need to add a lot of new business. To do so, we’re creating value-added products like Exhibits Plus, which includes an enhanced Web presence and directory listings, to increase the return for exhibitors. And in industries in which we have no internal magazine partner, such as coal processing and anti-aging integrative medicine, we’re launching e-newsletters.

Kerry Gumas
President and CEO
Questex Media Group Inc.
www.questex.com
Based: Newton, MA
Largest trade shows: AIIM On Demand 2005 with 22,973 attendees and 374 exhibiting companies in 221,000 NSF, and the International Beauty Show New York, 50,000 professionals attending and 550 manufacturers and distributors in 200,000 NSF.

What are the leading competitive issues for your shows?
1. Reinforce the value of the trade shows vs. other media. Budgets are under great scrutiny for marketers making the decision to come into a show. The value proposition now involves an integrated program that incorporates multiple media elements.

2. Qualification of the audience. Numbers aren’t the game at all; at the end of the day, the strong desire is for qualitative measurement.

3. The cost of doing business at trade shows. We have to [craft] a much tighter relationship among show organizer, venue, labor and contractors, working together as a team to reduce costs.

What growth do you project in 2006?
Ten to 15 percent.

What are your key objectives for 2006?
• We’re looking for growth in both audience and show floor: higher retention rates and expansion of programs with customers and with their customers. Professional societies and dealer groups [help us] bring a community together and back the trade show’s value proposition.

• We’re adding educational and networking programs that give attendees other reasons to come to the event, stream the right audience into the venue, and improve the interaction and experience. It’s like a game of golf. While our shows [in information technology, communications, travel, hospitality, beauty and home entertainment] face a lot of indirect competition, we’re trying to beat our own score by continually improving over the prior year’s activity.

What’s changing?
Probably the biggest changes we’ll see are with show evaluation and selection — metrics on how they (exhibitors and attendees) did and how we did. This is not a temporary phenomenon, and we have to step up. That starts with the salesperson, who is supposed to lead the relationship with customers. So we’re retooling our sales force and process, making sure they can drive the discussion on markets and objectives, and are more consultative and numerate in delivering value.

We continue to zero in on not just the right audience mix, but very specific [segments] by job function, increasingly personalizing communications and taking marketing dollars from nonqualified targets.

What new products are you planning?
Road shows in markets we’re already serving. In the beauty space, Operating Instructions Live began in 2005 as a series of conference-driven events with a marketing platform for companies to present products. These will carry into 2006. We’re also launching a custom event group, with some business in hand.

Deborah Malakoff
Vice President, Member Operations
Vision Council of America
www.visionsite.org

Eileen Baird

Industry Vice President and Show Manager
International Vision Expo/Reed Exhibitions
www.reedexpo.com

Based: Malakoff in Washington, DC, Baird in Norwalk, CT
Trade shows: International Vision Expo East 2005 (New York City): 14,405 attendees, 569 exhibiting companies in 243,000 NSF. International Vision Expo West 2004 (Las Vegas): 12,520 attendees, 522 exhibiting companies in 161,000 NSF. VCA and Reed jointly own Vision Expo and Vision Congress events.

What are the leading competitive issues for your shows?
1. Consolidation in both manufacturing and retail channels.

2. The choice to exhibit or attend regional or international events.

3. Web-based continuing education access.

What growth do you project in 2006?
Vision Watch Industry Research, which we produce in partnership with Jobson Publishing, currently projects an extremely modest 2 to 3 percent increase [for the industry] in 2006 — pretty much on par with 2005. We hope that attendance increases at both East and West events will be in line with that projection. However, it remains a challenge to project attendance year-to-year because it’s so contingent on the continuing education renewal cycles, which vary state-to-state.

What are your key objectives for 2006?
• Continued focus on the event as for the profession and by the profession. We expect to grow newly launched platforms (and partnerships with professional associations) that address specific business and professional needs of constituents and practice member communities.

• Introduce new industry segments in the Medical and Scientific Pavilion, which incorporates continuing education and exhibits highlighting technological advances in eyecare.

• Expand “Underground” Suites, which offer high-end eyewear designers and retailers the chance to meet in showrooms by appointment. Both make more efficient use of attendees’ time if they are looking for a particular product segment.

What’s changing?
The beauty of having two events per year is that each becomes a launching pad for new programs and initiatives.
This month at International Vision Expo West, we’re testing Vision Connection for full rollout in 2006. This online service gathers individual information when attendees register and acts as a personal assistant to match them with other attendees, suppliers, conference content and speakers — helping them best achieve their objectives through efficient pre-show planning.

The show’s position is to serve the entire ophthalmic community, so we’re working closely with other organizations that serve individual groups at the grassroots level. In 2005, the Contact Lens Association of Ophthalmologists is gaining visibility through a contact lens track at the show conference. Its symposium [held in Las Vegas at the same time as International Vision Expo West] includes a guided tour of the show floor. And in response to growing demand, we’ve launched a LabTalk series of continuing education specifically for laboratory professionals.

For exhibitors, a combined drayage and shipping program is in soft launch this year, with full rollout in 2006. This turnkey package will be more cost-effective for exhibiting companies, particularly first-timers. For attendees, new Total Price packages will make it more affordable for practitioners to bring multiple staff members to the show.

Mary Larkin
Vice President, Seafood Exhibitions
Diversified Business Communications
www.divbusiness.com
Based: Portland, ME
Trade shows: International Boston Seafood Show: 160,000 NSF, total attendance 16,000; European Seafood Exhibition Brussels, 322,000 NSF and 25,000 total attendance.

What are the leading competitive issues for your shows?
1. Consolidation of both exhibitors and attendees in the marketplace.

2. Regulations, such as new tariffs or import duties, that effectively become trade barriers.

What growth do you project in 2006?
Ten to 15 percent [for exhibits] and 5 percent for attendance for the Boston show, but we must make sure the quality is there. In 2004, attendance grew 30 percent in Brussels, this year maybe 15 percent.

What are your key objectives for 2006?
• We’re trying to build on the momentum of growth in 2005, when the International Boston Seafood Show moved to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. It had not grown in eight years; every square inch of space at John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center had been sold out. This year exhibits grew 23 percent, from 1,300 to 1,592 booths, and attendance grew 8 percent.

• Our objectives for the Brussels show are to maintain the professionalism and make this very large show manageable for attendees. Deals begun in Boston are often finalized in Brussels; there’s just a 5 percent overlap of participants, although 22 percent of Boston attendees are international.

What’s changing?
We’ll overkill on signage. In a new convention center, people don’t do what you want them to do!

We’ll be fine-tuning many changes in the move to a single show floor from three floors in the past. For example, Hynes wasn’t conducive for driving in big equipment, which we’ve done in Europe very successfully. So we opened up this new segment this year, separated it from seafood and marketed it as a side-by-side, co-located event, the first annual Seafood Processing America. Also, we introduced a lot of new programs, and while we did them well, next year they’ll be seamless.

We now have space for special events; we set up cooking stations, and companies purchased rights to use them for demonstrations by chefs. That created many more points of interest to make the event worth attending, and a lot more interaction that kept people on the floor longer.
We’ll continue a few new meetings we instituted. Late in summer, we bring all vendors (facility, decorator, hotels, shuttle bus company, utilities, etc.) together to discuss issues and what they’ve learned from other shows. 

Sarah Patt-Pronek
Expo Director
ARMA International
www.arma.org
Based: Lenexa, KS
Trade show: ARMA International 2005 Conference & Expo in September. ARMA’s 50th anniversary show for records and information management at Chicago’s Navy Pier is its largest, with 150,000 NSF and 3,500 attendees (5,500 total with exhibitors).
 
What are the leading competitive issues for your exposition?
1. Compliance with industry standards and technology, as dictated by corporate counsel and IT specialists in records and information management.

2. Professional development of members, typically administrative and/or middle managers.

3. Attracting all top executives in the records and information management field.

What growth do you project for 2006?
We anticipate our attendance will be up more than 12 percent from last year. Our overall space allocation will remain the same as last year.

What are key objectives for the 2006 Expo?
• Increase the number of attendees who visit the trade show.
• Increase attendees from the IT segment.
• Maintain the current exhibitor base.
• Integrate show floor booth sales with educational content.
 
What’s changing?
ARMA is looking for growth in IT, so we have to move where the technology is going, attracting superior sales vendors, as well as household-named companies. We’re looking to expand into vertical markets through alliances with other organizations, including media and industry sponsors.

We’ll cover more technology areas in the years to come through pre-conferences, such as the one we present on electronic records with an association partner and industry sponsors. These seminars are expanding beyond legal, government and financial services into health care as well, attracting more attendees seeking specific solutions. Typically there has been a disconnect between the sophistication of what exhibitors display and what’s discussed in educational sessions, which are volunteer-driven. 

Also, ARMA is introducing more speaker slots via special sessions such as Industry Intelligence Sessions and Technology Application Briefings on the show floor. This helps the vendor community speak directly to the attendees and provides the attendees with alternative education. (ARMA does not charge for attending the trade show.)

Robert Mesirow
Vice President
CTIA-The Wireless Association
www.ctia.org
Based: Washington, DC
Trade Show: CTIA Wireless 2005 (March) drew 40,000 attendees and 1,000 exhibitors in 310,000 NSF.

What are the leading competitive issues for your show?
1. International competition. Our attendees represent more than 100 countries.

2. The cyclical ebb and flow. Our pinnacle show came at the height of the bubble, but we were pretty prepared when the bubble burst and pushed the diversification strategy we had well before 2001.

3. Convergence. Wireless used to be a vertical show, but we keep adding many more verticals so that now we’re almost horizontal. The trick is to make sure all these verticals feel very comfortable within the show.

What growth do you project in 2006?
We’ll probably grow 10 to 20 percent next year, following 2005, which will be very strong for our show (first time in Las Vegas) and the entire trade show industry.

What are your key objectives in 2006?
• Control growth by design — so we don’t expand more than we can handle.

• Continue to diversify. I believe it takes three years to effect a change within a show of this size. The first year, people ask, “What’s this?” The second year, they start talking about it. The third year they get it. This year we introduced the Wireless Home — almost 60 products in a 7,000-sq.-ft. house on the show floor. More than 80 percent of attendees self-navigated through it. Next year, we’re looking to take the logical step and show how wireless can affect the entire value chain — a two-story structure with an upper floor office and lower floor factory.

• Add verticals. We have a list of industries we’re waiting to incorporate into the show when the timing is right. Our process is very deliberate. We think about how to incorporate a segment not only on the keynote level to set the tone, but also in education sessions, on the show floor, and in a networking event that brings people together. The mobile entertainment industry met us halfway, for example, and Mobile Entertainment Expo in its first year was extremely explosive.

What’s changing? 
We’re very mixed about dividing the show floor by product categories. When booths are mixed up, traffic flow tends to be everywhere. I’m not real eager to do this until we pass the 500,000-sq.-ft. barrier, but we’ll be there in three or four years.

Our approach to growing new verticals is to reach out to key companies within a vertical and develop a marketing plan with them. For example, we partnered with Photo Marketing Association International on the Wireless Imaging Pavilion, which we see as the future of that industry. After an interesting dialogue with Kodak that gave us great insights, the company participated with a 50x50 booth and its president presented a keynote, while kiosks were placed to show what wireless imaging was all about and photo contests were run. This all helped bring in this category, led by a bellwether company like Kodak.

For 2006, we do have some tricks up our sleeves, but we’re not talking about them right now.

David J. Zimmerman
President
Southern Shows Inc.
www.southernshows.com
Based: Charlotte, NC
Largest consumer shows: Southern Spring Home & Garden Show with 60,000 attendees and 240,000 GSF, and 12-day Southern Christmas Show with 100,000 attendees and 240,000 GSF

What are the leading competitive issues for your shows?
1. People attend consumer shows for ideas and information and to speak with experts. Our competition is not from other events, but from the increasing number of other sources for these three needs.

2. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to reach the public. This is true for all advertisers. We have to create ways to break through the muddle.

What growth do you project in 2006?
Since we derive 99 percent of our income from exhibit sales, ticket sales and sponsorships, any growth would have to come from increasing rates for all three. I have seen ticket prices around the country increasing — we’ve always kept an eye on movie prices, which have [risen] 22 percent in the past five years.

For 2006, we’re looking to maintain attendee levels. It may be a cyclical thing, but many peer shows have seen decreasing attendance so far this year. For our shows that had a down year, most would be happy to get back to where they had been.

Because we’re maxed out in most buildings we use, we’re not going to try to squeeze more money out of the exhibitors we have. Instead, we’re looking at creative ways to grow, such as putting up tents for additional exhibitors, as we did for the Southern Farm Show in Raleigh. While the 34,000 square feet don’t add a lot of revenues, since exhibit pricing at consumer shows is a lot less expensive than at business shows, the bigger, better show attracts more people.

What are your key objectives for 2006?
• Increased exhibitor quality.
• More involved show guest experience.
• Cost savings that do not interfere with quality. 

What’s changing?
• More hands-on programs and displays. We can give people the opportunity to paint a faux finish wall or pot plants, or watch others do it. For an upcoming fall show, we’re looking at hosting a competition for consumers to come in every hour or two and design an empty room using the same furniture and accessories.

• Creating “shows within shows.” Instead of coming to find ideas for their home, they want to update their kitchen countertops. To address specific needs, we’re creating areas that can stand on their own and looking to advertise these as separate shows.

• Teaming with television sponsors. A FOX affiliate and sponsor at the International Women’s Show in Detroit filmed the first day of the event and produced a 30-minute program that aired the second night. We saw a huge bump in attendance the following day.

• More words in advertising such as “meet” or “ask,” to show that face-to-face is more active. Consumers can’t talk to people on HDTV or the Internet, but at the show they can meet the experts and ask about their next building project.

Ron Gregg
National Conventions, Meetings, and Travel Manager
Ace Hardware
www.acehardware.com
Based: Oak Brook, IL
Corporate shows: Two (fall and spring) with 1,300 vendors in 560,000 GSF, 7,500 to 8,300 retailers, total attendance 17,000.

What are the leading competitive issues for your expositions?
1. Cost — how to save money for both vendor and retailer. Once we make a decision on location, we discuss cost-cutting measures at pre-site meetings with vendor partners — general contractor, decorator, housing company and the production company.

2. Technology — how to find faster and better ways to bring products to market. That keeps our retailers competitive.

3. Despite a captive audience, how to bring value. To exhibitors: qualified buyers interested in purchasing their products. To retailers: not just product, price and availability, but face time with vendors, networking, education and technology advances.

What growth do you project in 2006?
With the increase in the number of new retail units, new program initiatives at our shows and the importance of networking and educational training for our retailers, we have seen a 16 percent increase [in attendance]. We anticipate at least the same growth, if not higher, in the coming years.

We plan to maintain the show at its present “right size” footprint of around 526,000 GSF of exhibit space. Within that space, we always are looking to allow more vendors to participate, by adjusting dedicated space to corporate areas. We also are looking at alternative methods of introducing new ideas and products, such as Web-based displays and common area displays staffed by a dedicated team of Ace corporate employees. This may be the first step for up-and-coming or smaller manufacturers to participate at our show and get their foot in the door for possible inclusion in our warehouse programs. 
 
What are your key objectives for 2006?
• First to market on new, hot items.
• Making the bottom line.
• Keeping the interest of both sides (retailer and vendor).

What’s changing?
Technology is a key factor in making a good show great. We’ve jumped on the ease of Web-based applications to create a one-stop shop that bundles everything for retailers: education, meal functions, entertainment, attractions. Almost 90 percent of attendees do everything online: registration, hotel and airfare. Exhibitors have a Web-based application as well, through our partnership with The Expo Group. They can place booth orders, track shipments and handle all exhibition components, including invoicing, through a single source.

As for sponsorship programs, we’re looking at methods for key vendors to put out their brand — ads within our directory, coffee services in the morning, or such items as bags and lanyards — without cutting into the main reason for their participation at the show, which is offering our store owners/retailers the best deals available.

Still, the biggest complaint [for some retailers] is that the size of the show is unmanageable. We’ve always created hard-copy maps for merchandising buyers, showing [specific] booths they want to see. But in 2006 we’re creating a parallel program — an interactive mapping system that includes appointment setting. This will help individuals find what they’re looking for and maximize their time on the show floor. When everything works right, we’ll roll out the program.