Sandy Angus (left)
and new IAEE
chairman Jeff Price
Reflecting the changing
nature of the trade show industry, the membership of the
Dallas-based International Association for Exhibition Management
has approved a new name for the organization: the International
Association of Exhibitions and Events.
“Big companies are moving away from
exhibitions in some sense, but they are not moving away from
events,” Sandy Angus, IAEE’s outgoing chairman of the board of
directors, told reporters at the association’s annual meeting at
the San Diego Convention Center in November.
“Exhibitions have got to be exciting,”
Angus added. “I think the word events communicates
that.”
The name change marks a pivotal moment
in the association’s history, as IAEE seeks to establish itself as
the “principal” trade association of the industry and expand its
international partners. IAEE’s membership doubled in 2006, to more
than 6,700 people, after the association switched to a system that
recognizes entire organizations and their eligible employees as
IAEE members.
Building on that momentum, Jeff Price,
incoming chairman of the board and president of Burnsville,
Minn.-based Cygnus Expositions, vowed to continue IAEE’s dedication
to education and stressed the importance of volunteerism and
collaboration with other industry organizations, including the
Trade Show Exhibitors Association, as IAEE develops a number of new
initiatives. Among them: a template for calculating return on
investment and a series of videos about how to produce better trade
shows and gather better leads, due out later this year.
The video project, which will feature
the Orange County Convention Center, will be funded by a $50,000
donation from the Orlando/Orange County Convention and Visitors
Bureau.
The Center for Exhibition Industry
Research (CEIR), which consolidated with IAEE last March, received
an even bigger donation in November. The World Shoe Association,
based in Encino, Calif., granted CEIR $1 million to fund industry
research, part of a $38 million giveaway to industry and exhibition
organizations.
Donald Freeman, chairman of
Dallas-based Freeman, and Paul Dykstra, president and CEO of
Phoenix-based Viad Corp., have been tapped to recommend investment
strategies.
For CEIR president Doug Ducate, this
moment is a new beginning of sorts for CEIR. “We’re 28 years old
and we’ve never had any money,” Ducate said cheerfully. “Finally,
we have solid finances to go forward.”