The World Dairy Expo will be increasing the area of its Outdoor Trade Mall due to an increased number of exhibitors, a trend the event has been seeing in the past few years. Last year the event, which will take place Oct. 4-8 in Madison, WI, had an estimated attendance of over 65,000 people and organizers expect more will come out this year. 

The demand for space is currently exceeding what’s available because “of the fact that we’re dairy only,” says John Rozum, sales manager for the event. “We don’t focus on any other types of livestock, we don’t get into a lot of the frilly things that other shows may be doing to draw consumer attendance—no concerts, no tractor pulls or official after hours entertainment. We’re hardcore on the trade show and we combine that with a very large cattle show.”

According to Rozum, getting an opportunity to participate in the World Dairy Expo is not easy--right now, there is a waiting list of between 200-300 companies, depending on the time of year.

"It’s more than just a wait list of companies not in the show--existing exhibitors are also very limited on expansion," he says. "We had over 150 exhibitor requests for additional space go unfilled this year. New companies are generally limited to a single 10x10 and returning exhibitor expansions are rare. For us, attrition is the only real opportunity to bring in new blood unless we can come up with creative new space. This year, we did this by eliminating a few aisles in order to increase net exhibitor space in the Outdoor Trade Mall and cannibalized some of our International Lounge space for exhibits. The sale of non-traditional exhibit space has also become more common.”  

The Trade Mall will exhibit a wider range of new products, a fitting increase for the occasion’s theme of “Around the World of Dairy in 5 Days.” Of the 800 exhibiting companies 120 are coming from outside the United States and 130 companies are making their first appearance at the event—the show’s International Lounge area has also been expanded to accommodate the large global presence.

“Our biggest challenge is working with the companies and the facilities to try and come up with new space—we’ve been at the same facility for about 47 years and every year we think we’re using it all and every year we have to come up with new creative space to put people in,” he says.

The show will be held on about 535,000 net square feet of exhibit space, that number represents an increase of 20,000 from 2010. The show has about 6,500 Facebook fans and around 1,000 Twitter followers.

“Social media plays in well to the strength of our show because it is a small industry where people know each other and they like to talk and to talk about the show—they feel personally vested in the event,” he says. “It’s not just a trade show or a cattle show, it’s Madison—it’s where the dairy industry goes in October.”