Almost 14,000 veterinarians and their staff members gathered in Las Vegas for the Western Veterinary Conference (WVC) in February, and with the show’s new WVC-Connect mobile guide, maneuvering across the floor and through the education sessions was easier than ever.

The GSM Association (GSMA), which represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry, hosts the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona each February, and more than 49,000 mobile communications professionals come to hobnob and learn from each other.

At a time when many publishers have seen live events dwindle (American Business Media just released a report that said events were the second hardest hit category after print in 2009, down 15.8 percent to $11.1 billion), many would eagerly take a show such as PennWell’s 88-year-old Fire Department Instructors Conference (FDIC), which has proven relatively recession-resistant, drawing 27,000 attendees and selling out 800 exhibit booths at the Indianapolis Convention Center.

In December 2008, Haymarket’s SC Magazine launched its SC World Congress conference and trade show dedicated to IT security, just at the time when physical events began feeling the effects of the economic downturn.While the event attracted 900 people over two days, it still fell below its goal.

Instead of simply just driving home the value of your own event, why not show your constituents that you see the big picture? The BioMass Conference and Expo does just that, leveraging the Registration section on its Web site to highlight not only the benefits of attending the conference, but also of business travel in general.

For years, IPC, the Association for Connecting Electronics Industries, has struggled to get exhibitors to promote their own presence at IPC APEX EXPO, the organization’s annual conference and exhibition. To help, organizers launched the IPC Midwest Challenge, a friendly competition among exhibitors to motivate them to invite their own contacts to the show.

After 28 years in New York, the Licensing International Expo (LE) convened for the first time in Las Vegas in June 2009, with 16,000 attendees and more than 400 exhibitors. To attract attention and as many attendees as possible to the show in its new location, organizers looked to social media, kicking off a promotional campaign with an iPod giveaway via Twitter, and encouraging the use of Twitter among attendees and exhibitors at every stage of the event.

Meeting green is nothing new for Oracle OpenWorld. The 37,500-attendee technology event for Oracle customers and staff, held at San Francisco’s Moscone Center each October, was recognized with the IMEX Silver Green Meetings Award in 2008. But in 2009, with goals to ramp up the scope and influence of their sustainability program, event organizers knew they’d need help.

Autotune software (which translates spoken voice into song) turned a song “sang” by Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) staff and McCormick Place employees into the Black Eyed Peas hit song “I Gotta Feeling.”

When Planview, an independent portfolio management solutions provider, polled customers and found that the regular attendance of about 200 at its annual customer conference would drop significantly due to tight travel budgets, organizers decided to hold the company’s first-ever virtual conference last October.

Want to set a green example for your exhibitors? Take a cue from exhibitor Joey Roth, who constructed his summer 2009 New York International Gift Fair (NYIGF) booth exclusively from materials discarded during the Fair’s two-day set-up phase.