Attendees surveyed at the Exhibition and Convention Executives Forum (ECEF) on June 2nd in Washington, DC, listed “international attendees/exhibitors unable to get into the U.S.” as the greatest threat or challenge to their events. This was closely followed by “mergers and acquisitions reducing the attendee and exhibitor base.”

Participants in the survey were association and independent exhibition senior executives from the 2010 ECEF conference, as well as previous attendees.

The greatest threat listed from the same survey in 2009 — global economic recession — fell to the 12th position.

Rounding out the 2010 top five threats are: attendees spending less time at events, exhibitors having their own private events, and exhibitors canceling sponsorships.