February 2006
Special report: Mid-size shows

Mid-size shows: The battle for marketshare
Squeezed by mega-show competitors and fending off smaller niche events nipping at their heels, producers of mid-size shows face opposition from all sides. To stay competitive, they’re using every tool in the playbook — synergistic partnerships, affinity co-locations, market segmenting, dazzling technology and savvy site selection.
By Maxine Golding


Growth clearly cuts two ways. For a few years the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) deliberately slowed its booking pace as the pendulum swung its way. Expanding facilities offered plenty of inventory for ASTRO’s growing annual meeting, and hotel room blocks could be negotiated without attrition.

As show organizers know, what goes around, comes around. ASTRO found itself crowded out of its desired October dates when targeted cities just didn’t have the availability. “With fewer options, we have to be more conscious of the sites we’re choosing,” says Meetings Director Michele Cordie. That’s pushed her to “get aggressive again.”

Squeezed by mega-show competitors and fending off smaller niche events, producers of mid-size shows — with 75,000 to 150,000 net square feet — face opposition from all sides. To stay competitive, they’re using every tool in the playbook — synergistic partnerships, affinity co-locations, market segmenting, dazzling technology and savvy site selection.

For many mid-size shows, revenues are up, and aisles are overflowing. Average net square footage has grown by 5.4 percent to 65,677 for shows with 50,000 to 99,999 NSF in the United States and Canada, according to the just-completed 2005 Exhibition Industry Census from the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR).

Yet it’s when times are good that show organizers must ratchet up their efforts to ensure their expositions remain high on the priority list of all clients. “I have to protect the vital importance of the meeting revenue,” says Brenda Cunningham, the American Association of Petroleum Geologists’ Director of Global Development.

So what are the keys to growth for mid-size shows? In this special report, EXPO examines how mid-size shows are winning the battle for marketshare. In the first section, find out how four shows are dealing with unique challenges and implementing growth strategies that work. In addition, you’ll find tips on how to increase attendance and exhibit sales, and we’ve identified current trends for mid-size shows that could impact your next show.

Widen the audience
Shows:  Firehouse Expo (Baltimore in summer), Firehouse World Exposition & Conference (San Diego in February) and a new launch, 2006 Firehouse Las Vegas (co-located with EMS Expo in September)
Show Producer: Cygnus Expositions
Web Site: www.firehouseevents.com
Show Statistics: Firehouse Expo 2005: 100,000 NSF, 350 exhibitors, 16,000 attendees; Firehouse World E&C 2005: 85,000 NSF, 300 exhibitors, 6,000 attendees; Firehouse Las Vegas (projected): 25,000 NSF and 2,000 to 3,000 attendees (alongside EMS Expo’s 95,000 NSF and 5,000 to 6,000 attendees)
Recent Growth: 5-10 percent per year for the two existing events
Growth Challenge: Appeal to a wider audience of fire and EMS professionals, from line firemen to chief officers
Growth Strategy: To lead the trend in melding “fire” with EMS through expanded content and additional shows, such as the recent purchase of EMS Expo (along with EMS magazine)

“More and more, fire departments are running EMS calls, with both being administered out of the same department,” says Robert Brice, Group Show Director. “But firefighters are in some ways grudging EMS providers; they see EMS as the ugly stepchild. So we have to push the reality in front of them, bringing to the fore training and certification opportunities.”

Quality content drives the Firehouse Expos, and in 2006 there will be plenty to present on the emerging cycle of violent hurricanes in the South and escalating wildfires in the West. By adding specific EMS content and focus to its existing mid-size shows, Cygnus makes sure that attendees gain critical exposure to both disciplines. The synergy also brings EMS exhibitors to the fire shows, a key part of Cygnus’ growth strategy. And by co-locating Firehouse with EMS Expo in Las Vegas, Cygnus really pushes the melding of the two segments.

“The more we can offer our attendees in terms of the breadth of content they’re interested in, the more we’ll draw,” says Brice. “If they can go to the fire show and slip into the EMS classes they need, the show becomes a whole lot more attractive.” And it may even pull a subset that might not have attended before.

Partnerships and technology promote growth
Show: ASTRO’s 48th Annual Meeting (November in Philadelphia)
Show Producer: American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology
Web site: www.astro.org 
Show Statistics: 108,000 NSF, 255 exhibitors and 10,300 attendees
Recent Growth: 2-3 percent annually in attendance, somewhat faster on the exhibit side
Growth Challenge: The limited universe of doctors
Growth Strategies: Create relationships with affinity groups and sister societies and tap into their audiences. Use technology to involve everyone everywhere in the annual meeting, including international attendees, a fast-growing segment.

ASTRO has put partnering in its sights. Most recently, it’s targeted dosimetrists, who work with radiation oncologists to measure dosage or treatment. ASTRO created a registration rate just for them, and this group increased its attendance at the ASTRO annual meeting. The organization is also creating programs, such as the “Best of ASTRO” translation, to entice the promising international segment.

But most significantly, ASTRO is actively involving everyone on site and off through the use of technology. The society doubled the number of audience interactive sessions (with individuals using response units), expanded Webcasting sessions for those who can’t attend, and enabled WiFi in some session rooms for participants to download handouts and add their own notes, explains Michele Cordie, Meetings Director. Virtual posters, CME tracking and CME certificates are instantly accessible online, and a searchable virtual exhibit hall remains live as a resource for attendees for six months after the event. Plus, a technology pavilion will introduce companies to the workings of ASTRO and allow presentations outside of their booth space but still within the pavilion.

Following highly successful computer-based training the previous year, ASTRO built a classroom in 2005 right on the exhibit floor. The small class environment was anchored between the booths in the front and posters at the back. The classroom was such a good draw that the first morning it took ASTRO about two hours to work through some 800 people in line.

Co-location strategy pays off
Show: International Contemporary Furniture Fair (May in New York)
Show Producer: George Little Management LLC
Web site: www.icff.com
Show Statistics: 145,000 NSF, 500 exhibitors, 20,000 attendees
Recent Growth: Attendance up 6 percent in 2004, 17 percent in 2005. Exhibition up 6.5 percent in 2004, 12 percent in 2005.
Growth Challenges: Maintain the quality level and image as a high-end, juried design show, keep new products and designs flowing, and make sure the right type of company is participating.
Growth Strategies: Co-locate events that expand the show’s brand and reach. Educate the marketplace on the show’s value through importers-distributors in the United States (46 percent of exhibitors are based outside the country) and governmental organizations in other countries, such as Royal Danish Consulate. Use the exhibit sales team and mentoring programs to educate young designers on how to successfully exhibit and fulfill leads.

“ICFF’s popularity and growth the past few years speak to the fact that contemporary design is now being embraced in North America,” says Phil Robinson, Senior Vice President and Show Manager.

Partnerships with affinity associations — such as the American Society of Interior Designers and the International Interior Design Association — have stoked that growth. So have those with Metropolis magazine and six international publications, which succeeded in attracting exhibitors from outside the United States. And to appeal to young designers just out of design school, ICFF introduced Studio Spaces. It’s a one-time invitation to present a new product or design idea in small, 5- by 10-foot spaces that are grouped together.

Perhaps the most important development is the recently announced launch of International Interiors New York in May 2006. This 50-50 joint venture of George Little Management and Reed Expositions adds complementary high-end interior design products (other than contemporary) alongside ICFF. “We see a huge crossover opportunity for attendees with both,” says Robinson. It’s not the first co-location. SURTEX, for surface design, predates ICFF and has co-located with it for 18 years.

These all feed a “Design Week” in New York that has built up around ICFF, making the attendee experience even more worthwhile. Retail stores, galleries and showrooms, whether or not they are official supporters, stage tie-in events. Seizing the opportunity, ICFF and Metropolis have produced ICFF Connected, a directory that details the hundreds of ancillary activities that take place in the city during the week.

Rethinking the rotation
Shows: AAPG Annual Convention (April) and AAPG International Conference & Exhibition (November in Calgary)
Show Producer: American Association of Petroleum Geologists
Web Site: www.aapg.org
Show Statistics: 2005 Convention — 65,600 NSF, 226 exhibitors and 2,000 attendees
Recent Growth: 57 percent increase in attendance from the Dallas Convention in 2004 to Calgary in 2005
Growth Challenge: “Convincing busy people in companies with very reduced staffing levels that what we offer in three days is something they can’t afford to miss,” says Brenda Cunningham, Director of Global Development.
Growth Strategies: Select the most attractive sites for the marketplace. Involve upper management of major companies and independents in show planning and in identifying initiatives for their companies’ growth. Raise the level of education in the technical program to engage a higher level of participant.

After a thorough analysis in 2002, one trend line became clear: Huge swings in attendance and exhibitor participation tied to the destination (and to companies serving that region’s oil industry) made it difficult to manage the AAPG Annual Convention. So the association made big changes in its rotation pattern of five cities and two wild cards in every seven-year period. It replaced that with three fixed cities (Houston, New Orleans and Denver) and two wild cards within five years.

With sites already selected far out, action had to be taken almost immediately. AAPG was lucky that the city already booked for 2006 — the first year of the new scheme — was Houston, so the organization did not have to cancel or switch its destination. Wild card Long Beach is slated for 2007 and New Orleans in 2008.

To date, the organization has supported its volunteer sections in joint regional show initiatives, such as geologists with engineers or geophysicists in the Rocky Mountain states. Now AAPG is assessing whether to combine shows on a larger scale. This comes in response to “external pressure that there are too many shows,” says Cunningham. “But how do we fix that, still meet member needs, and [generate] the cash flow that well-run meetings provide?”

2. Buying Power.
All shows try to operate more efficiently and cost-effectively. But to gain real clout, mid-size shows have to bring whatever power in numbers they bear to the negotiating table. Long-term contracts with service providers make a big difference.

Cygnus Expositions, with more than 50 shows annually, gains considerable savings through its national contract with The Freeman Cos. ASTRO carefully nurtures its team of established vendors, but bids out contracts every three years to assure that those vendors remain competitive.

“We get pressure from on high,” says Brice. “There’s always someone out there hungry for the business, so service providers must be on their game and sharp with their pencil.”

From the beginning, ICFF built drayage into a packaged square foot price, to the show’s advantage. Since many products arrive uncrated, exhibitors find no surprises in added charges. However, this puts the burden on show producer George Little Management to continually contract smarter. For example, it just found an alternative source of affordable aisle carpeting out of Europe. While not as heavy as carpeting typically used at U.S. shows, it does give more flexibility at a better price point, says Phil Robinson, Senior Vice President and Show Manager. And ICFF also offers a hardwood flooring package that three-quarters of exhibitors use. It presents a clean, professional design look in a common platform. Still, he adds, “everybody is feeling the squeeze” in operating costs.

3. The Space Squeeze.
As the exhibition industry overall continues to grow, mid-size shows are feeling the heat when it comes to booking space. ASTRO is revving up its booking pace in response to solid growth and limited availability at targeted cities. High-maintenance doctors don’t like long shuttle bus rides, so Cordie is identifying cities with more close-in hotels.

With the annual meeting booked through 2011, she’s looking now to finalize dates 10 years out for the most desirable week in October. But this longer booking window requires her to include adequate language in contracts allowing the option for the group to move if it outgrows the hotels or the convention center. And while ASTRO highly values contiguous space, it knows it must be flexible; the recent selection of San Francisco for a future meeting puts the exposition in two halls instead.

4. Crediting the Block.
For mid-size shows, it’s more important than ever to get credit for room blocks — not only to combat attrition, but also to strengthen their negotiatiing position when it comes to booking future events. The days when ASTRO could sign contracts without attrition are waning as the cycle turns. Now the key issue for Cordie is competing with the Internet to keep people within the block. “We’re looking closely at contract language that keeps hotels from selling rooms on Internet carriers over peak nights,” she explains. The contract also outlines what happens when hotels violate the clause and are not willing to take those rooms offline.

Preferring to reward rather than punish, ASTRO does not mandate that exhibitors book in the block. Instead, it offers points towards next year’s booth selection if they participate in the block. And they get more points if they maintain their original block.

5. Brand Extension.
While it’s not as easy as it is for mega-shows, mid-size shows are finding success with ancillary opportunities off the “mother” brand. ASTRO, for one, will probably participate in its first co-sponsored meeting in 2007 where it is not the lead sponsor and not managing the logistics.

Cygnus builds its Firehouse brand and now EMS from its interactive site. While a separate profit center, the site dovetails nicely with the shows, with each creating excitement for the other: live Webcasts from the shows and Webinars featuring top speakers throughout the year.

“People will see these speakers at the show and keep track of their ideas,” Brice notes. “It’s difficult to track how the Web site contributes to ROI, but all the Webcasts add to our attractiveness. Exhibitors want to be involved in a successful venture.”

2. Make educational content the tail wagging the dog. Mid-size shows are highlighting hands-on training and leading experts to attract more attendees. Two days before exhibits open, the Firehouse Expos present from 10 to 25 courses at locations around the host city. Attendees participate in mock drills in vacant buildings, following scenarios from a burned room to a forcible entry. And the key to energizing attendance is to have those who ran a well-known incident — such as the district chief in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina — run a drill.

3. Change perception to attract new exhibitors. That’s what ASTRO did after polls showed that consumers had a negative impression of radiation treatment. As ASTRO helped promote radiation therapy as a viable treatment option alongside or in combination with chemotherapy, more exhibitors in that category found their way to ASTRO’s show.

Because many exhibiting companies local to a show destination will not follow AAPG to other sites, AAPG is turning this one-off negative to its advantage. It’s engaging a member of its volunteer base as a local exhibitor chairman for each show to target service providers that are more regionally specific to that destination.

Show organizers often overlook an underused resource — the attendee prospect list. Many potential exhibitors come to check out a show, says Phil Robinson, Senior Vice President and Show Manager, International Contemporary Furniture Fair, so “keen prospects are right under our noses.” Take time to study the attendee database and make sure to get company Web site addresses from registrants.

4. Target with online promotion. “Electronic promotion is working for us more than it ever has,” says Brice of Firehouse Expos. “And it reduces costs.”

Direct mail to attendees is not effective for ASTRO’s dollar investment. “Doctors are inundated with mail, so they’re looking more at e-mail,” says Michele Cordie, Meetings Director. ASTRO is moving from text e-mail to HTML format with links and presenting key nugget points to identify what’s different about the annual meeting and why doctors should want to come.

When AAPG initiated and promoted online registration in 2003, it saw a 61 percent engagement rate that first year. It’s been all up from there. And with people making decisions later and later, adds ICFF’s Robinson, it’s very important to tilt the focus of the promotional campaign to the final 12 weeks before the show.

5. Act micro, not macro. AAPG has become much more hands-on and focused in its exhibitor marketing, providing more personal services, amenities and demographic data necessary to make sure they succeed. “Exhibitors represent a huge portion of each show’s success, and we have to prove to them that we have their best interests in mind,” Cunningham notes. The association placed more print advertising locally, to keep its brand in front of members and engage with local affiliates. These inexpensive ads also provide revenues for affiliates.

6. Build a buzz organically. This is something you can’t manufacture, say show producers. The Firehouse shows encourage speakers to remind others that they will be at your event; many have e-mail lists, some in the tens of thousands. “They are very powerful, and every industry has them,” Brice says. “It is a detriment not to be connected to their networks.”

To get its buzz, AAPG programs astrogeology special sessions of an hour or two led by very high-profile speakers, such as Harrison H. Schmitt, PhD, one of the few geologists who walked on the moon. For its part, ICFF builds up its opening night party at the Museum of Modern Art as “the New York design event of the year.” And it creates two or three special exhibits on the show floor; last year’s Design Boom opened a store where people could purchase small design souvenirs that could be carried in a shopping bag.

7. Extend the show beyond its “borders.” For the past two years, AAPG has worked with its technical program committee to identify one oral presentation room with sessions of such global interest that they would be meaningful on the Web site. Their delivery is delayed about three to four weeks as video is synchronized with the PowerPoint presentations and the audio quality is enhanced as much as possible. The result is a value-add Webcast for members.