The Exhibition and Convention Executives Forum (ECEF) held last June in Washington D.C. conducted a survey along with Jacobs Jenner & Kent that, among other issues, examined when exhibition executives think the industry revenues will rebound. The majority of the 130 executives polled felt show revenues will not recover until the second half of 2011.

A further breakdown of that statistic reveals that, between association and independent exhibition organizers, there is slight disagreement in the timing for a recovery. Almost 40 percent of independent organizers feel that a recovery will happen in the second half of 2011, while association organizers are more optimistic and predict a recovery in the first half.

International audiences are a growing segment, say respondents. Among association organizers, almost 40 percent say that 16 percent or more of their audiences are from outside the United States, while 18 percent of independent organizers can say the same.

Meanwhile, Independent organizers are increasing their budgets for attendee marketing—54 percent responded as such. Association organizers are splitting pretty evenly across investing more in marketing and education programming for attendees and on the show floor.

Not surprisingly, the Web is the most used strategy to increase the “duration and reach” of an event. Respondents from associations and independents indicated this marketing channel at 44 percent and 43 percent respectively. Interestingly, for the same question—What’s your most used external strengthening strategy?—the least popular choice among respondents was “changing the format of your show (hours, days, floor plan).”