The AARP Life@50+ National Event and Expo is defying growth perceptions—this association event has gone from 5,000 attendees to 25,000-plus in the 10 years since the show began in 2001. CB Wismar, vice president of AARP Events, gives insight into reaching America’s older demographic and drawing them into a show floor.

“Unlike an association that has a captive audience and moves their audience from city to city, we are effectively creating the show [attendance] from scratch every year,” says Wismar. “We aren’t an association show in the membership or continuing education mode, no one on our attendance roster is on an expense account—these are all elective decisions of folks who decide to spend some of their vacation money and time going to our event. It's the notion of building a better mousetrap and trying to increase attendance in creating an attractive program.”

Only about 25 to 30 percent of the event’s attendance accounts for repeat attendees and the rest of the draw for the yearly event is dependent on local association members. While it seems like a challenge, AARP has over 40 million members nation wide and in three U.S. territories. Originally, the group’s event started as a national delegate conference run every two years, it has since evolved into an entertainment and educational event.

The next AARP Life@50+ National Event and Expo will be held in Los Angeles September 22-24 of this year at the Los Angeles Convention Center. It will have 75 sessions, dozens of celebrities and four live music concerts. So far, an estimated 300 exhibitors have signed up to display on the some 350,000 net square feet of exhibit space.

“Folks that come to our event are there to hear people and have experiences that they otherwise would not have,” says Wismar. “We attempt to create experiences for our folks that are so unique that attendance becomes very attractive. We lay the foundation of a 450 booth trade show that first and foremost gives the attendees the opportunity to encounter every aspect of AARP.”

Since the show is being held in Los Angles, the theme will be very heavily focused on Hollywood—iconic comedian Carol Brunett, singer Lionel Richie and dozens of other celebrites will be in attendance to perform or speak. Actors Emilio Estevez and Martin Sheen will premier their new movie, The Way, at the event.

In addition to brand name entertainment, attendees can participate in educational sessions led by celebrities and professional subject matter experts that wiill speak on healthcare, technology, finance, new career planning, travel, volunteer opportunities and fitness education.

“Every unit and interest group within AARP is represented along with our vendors and suppliers,” says Wismar, adding that it draws new attendees every year. Many of the sessions are archived online, giving ease to track selection.

Unlike other annual trade shows or conventions, AARP is not investing large portions of their advertising budget into social media campaigns to reach the new attendee base year after year.

“There’s an appetite for social media but there’s also a great appetite for learning about social media and learning about media in general,” says Wismar. “You’ve got those walking in with their iPads and those walking in and saying ‘Someone help me in this environment.’”

While the 50-plus population is still playing catch-up on the technology front, Wismar acknowledges that this trend won’t always be steadfast, a notion AARP heeds as it continues to develop its social media presence.

“In 10 years, it will be totally different,” says Wismar. “In 10 years from now, the people that are 40 years old right now will be eligible for AARP. Those are people who are absolutely immersed in social media and couldn’t live without it.”

Currently, there are over 44,000 Facebook fans on the AARP page and over 16,000 Twitter followers.

“As our audience matures into becoming AARP members [social media marketing] will be less of a challenge,” he adds. “We are in a very interesting position because we have to speak both to an audience who is still attracted to and driven by paper and who at the same time is electronically linked. We need to make a transition in which neither one of those audiences feel like they are second-class citizens or being ignored. It will change over the next 10 years as we gray into a totally media savvy generation but right now we’ve got to be equally aware of people that do not have an email account, are not on Twitter and do not have a Facebook but still need to get information.”

Until then, some of the most effective ways of reaching attendees outside of digital properties is through the utilization of association offices—AARP has one in every state—to help spread communications locally about the event.

The California AARP has smaller localized events throughout the year and will promote the yearly national event to generate attendance interests through communication channels already established.

AARP will send out pieces of direct mail, buy full-page advertisements in large newspapers like the Los Angles Times, erect a billboard on Sunset Boulevard that will run for the month of September and host full page advertisements in AARP the magazine, which is the largest circulation magazine in the country, to generate interest and increase attendance.

Wismar says AARP will also go to a state fair to get individuals to sign up and University of Southern California and University of Los Angeles sport games to get 50-plus individuals to register, in addition to spreading the word with radio and television advertisements. Weekly community and smaller circulation daily newspapers, as well as website banner ads, are also used to reach attendees.

“All of our programs become more and more attractive every year,” says Wismar. “People realize this would be a great event for vacation, these are elective dollars I’m spending and the value, which goes back to the underlying trade show, is so great that I’m not only going to go but I’ll talk to other people about it. Word of mouth has been a significant part of our growth.”

The show will also capitalize in a brand new way with the 2011 event—for the first time a performance the show is hosting, in this case a concert by Tony Bennett, will be open to the public—admission to the exhibit floor and the exhibit floor performance stage, the opening show and all educational sessions for three days is $25 for AARP members and $35 for nonmembers—though a 1 year membership is included for non-member registration.

When asked about long term attendance goals and the future of the AARP Life@50+ National Event and Expo, Wismar says that down the line the group may consider doing several regional events—one in the North, South, East and West of the U.S.

“With the cost of transportation and hotels continuing to increase, we’re working harder to get folks to travel great distances,” he says. “The notion 10 years ago was to alternate coasts every year--it made sense because people were more likely to do that travel, which is not the case now. I can see in a couple years of going into a regional show model—I’d love to say we’ll have 25,000 in each city, which is unlikely, but I do think we could increase aggregate attendance over the course of a year by having multiple events.”

The plans for expansion, while not definite, could begin in the next two to three years, he says.

Watch a clip from last year's show here: