In a tough economic year, SAWLEX, the Sawmill and Logging Expo for the logging and sawyering industries, set exhibit space and attendance records by eliminating drayage costs and soliciting grants from outside groups to purchase demonstration materials for exhibitors. When the regional, biennial show, held in Morgantown,WV, last June, was over, SAWLEX sold the products made at demonstrations and donated the profits back into the community.

Thanks to its community outreach efforts, SAWLEX attracted 33 percent more registered buyers in 2009 compared with its 2007 show, and three percent more exhibitors than at the previous show. Exhibit space also grew 8.2 percent, from 112,848 net square feet in 2007 to 122,900 net square feet in 2009. Ted Hugger, the show’s organizer and owner of Hugger Event Management, attributes the show’s growth during a difficult economic year to its focus on buyers’ needs to see more live equipment demonstrations, and on building partnerships to help meet those needs.

“This is the logging industry and it’s all about heavy equipment and the equipment’s performance,”Hugger says. “Exhibitors want to be able to demonstrate thisequipment and attendees want to see the equipment operate side by side.”

But because of last year’s economic woes, many exhibitors thought they would be unable to bring their own equipment and keep it operating throughout the show. To make the show work, SAWLEX had to find ways to make it affordable for exhibitors to demonstrate equipment on the show floor. For the first time at the 2009 show, organizers didn’t charge for drayage and provided forklifts and operators at no charge to exhibitors.

Rather than using a traditional decorating company, SAWLEX rented forklifts and other equipment, hired local workers and managed all move-in and setup directly. Because much of the show is outdoors,many exhibitors could bring in their large equipment and place it directly. While covering the drayage costs out of the show budget wasn’t ideal,“we had to do it to make the show work,”Hugger says.

For many exhibitors, however, even if they could afford to bring equipment to the show, they couldn’t manage the expense of lumber to use in demonstrations. “An enormous cost to exhibitors who operate logging equipment is the cost of demonstration materials: logs,”Hugger says.

While SAWLEX couldn’t afford to provide lumber at no charge to its exhibitors, it partnered with outside groups that shared an interest in making the show a success. Hugger started with the Mountain Loggers’ Cooperative Association (MLCA), the regional professional association for the show’s audience.With the association’s help, Hugger forged a partnership with MLCA’s charity of choice, the West Virginia Children’s Hospital, and the Morgantown Convention & Visitors Bureau. After Hugger shared the show’s needs and the economic impact that a successful show could bring to the community, the CVB awarded SAWLEX a grant of $8,000 to be used for purchasing logs for the demonstrations, and the Children’s Hospital matched that grant with an additional $8,000. After the show, MLCA donated proceeds from the sale of wood byproducts produced on site back to the hospital through the association’s Log a Load for Kids program.

“With this money, raw demonstration logs were purchased from the association members, creating work for area loggers prior to the show,”Hugger says. “We were then able to provide exhibitors with the logs free of charge.”During the show, exhibitors processed more than 325 tons of logs into sawn lumber, firewood, wood chips and mulch.

In addition to cooperating with local partners, SAWLEX partnered with Independent Sawmill & Woodlot Management, a magazine in one of the show’s key market segments, to promote the show nationally. On-site, the magazine staged and executed two live equipment competitions, the Great Portable Sawmill Shoot-Out and the Great Firewood Processing Equipment Competition, as well as demonstrations of the international Game of Logging competition.

The magazine partnership helped attract a wider audience for this traditionally regional show.While 54 percent of attendees came from West Virginia and Pennsylvania, buyers traveled from 33 states, three Canadian provinces and Poland to see and purchase logging and sawyering equipment.

SAWLEX’s Strategy

GOAL: To recruit more exhibitors to SAWLEX 2009 that will demonstrate their equipment on site, despite the tough economic situation, in order to draw more attendees to the show.

STRATEGY: Develop partnerships with outside groups to raise grant money in order to eliminate drayage charges and purchase materials for on-site demonstrations.

RESULTS: Through partnerships with a logging association, the association’s charity of choice, the local CVB and an industry trade magazine, SAWLEX was able to increase overall 2009 attendance 33 percent over the previous show in 2007.