Targeted Trade Shows

I think the next 10 years in our industry are going to be the most exciting and challenging,” predicts Galen Poss, president of Hanley-Wood Exhibitions, a division of Washington, D.C.-based Hanley-Wood LLC. “The industry is changing very quickly and dramatically, and the needs of our customers aren’t what they were even three years ago.” 

Poss, whose company produces some of the largest building- and construction-related shows in the United States, says a large part of the challenge is that exhibitors’ needs vary so widely. “They all want to meet customers, but they all define a successful show differently,” he notes.

“We are in a new age of competition,” says Steven Hacker, president of the Dallas-based International Association for Exhibition Management. “The people who are going to profit most successfully are those who can figure out ways to reduce costs and increase efficiency.”

To achieve this and stay on top of their game, trade show producers in all industries are scrambling to make changes in areas as diverse as technology, customer service and logistics. Here’s a look at the top trends shaping the market today, along with revealing insights from the people making them happen.

PATENT NONSENSE?

In April, the Expo Group was granted a patent and more. The Irving, Texas-based exhibit management firm was given proprietary rights not just for its show management software suite, but for the business process as well. In other words, even if an industry rival was not using the Expo Group’s Single Source software and just emulated the procedure, it still would be in violation of the patent. 
   
Expo Group’s chief information officer, Randy Pekowski, says the patent is important. “As companies try to distinguish themselves in the market, using business process patents will help them do that. That’s one of the primary reasons we did it.”

Many in the industry aren’t buying it, however. Steven Hacker, president of the Dallas-based International Association for Exhibition Management, believes the real reason the Expo Group got its patent is the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office doesn’t understand the trade show industry. “All of this has to do with a failure in the system of the patent office,” he says, adding that he expects to see more ventures like the Expo Group’s in the future, since attempting to patent business practices is a fairly untested market.

One industry veteran who is happy for the Expo Group is Paul Franke, president and CEO of Pittsburgh-based Software Management Inc., a trade show tech firm that filed a similar patent last year. While SMI still is waiting for the results of its filing, Franke says the fact that the Expo Group got a patent suggests more such rights on practices will be granted.

The bottom line? “All industry professionals  must now assign a higher priority to fully understanding these intellectual property laws and procedures,” says Franke. M.C.

Vertical is looking up
While trade shows in the late 1990s were best exemplified by hall-filling behemoths that tried to be everything to everyone, the industry watchword in the leaner 21st century is “vertical.” Shows are being developed around narrower, more focused platforms, while horizontal event producers are rethinking their layouts and marketing to attract more motivated buyers.

Framingham, Mass.-based IDG World Expo made a huge shift this year when it renamed its East Coast Macworld show Macworld CreativePro, with an accompanying change in content and marketing. Rather than aim for a broad and vague consumer market, IDG chose to target a smaller but freer-spending group of graphics, film and digital entertainment professionals.

IAEM’s Hacker believes this shift is a positive sign. “I think you’ll see more vertical shows in the technology space as tech begins to rebound,” he says. “Any time you’ve got a resurgence, there’s the need for specialization.”

Even shows in traditional brick-and-mortar industries are looking to vertical divisions as a way to cut through the clutter and make their events stand out.

When the Chicago-based American Hardware Manufacturer’s Association split with its longtime show producer, Norwalk, Conn.-based Reed Exhibitions, earlier this year, Reed announced it would move the National Hardware Show to Las Vegas for 2004 and institute changes to emphasize particular industry segments.

Rob Cappiello, industry vice president of the National Hardware Show for Reed Exhibitions, says one way the show is being rejuvenated is by redrawing the map of the show floor to group exhibitors together by type of product.

“The future direction will be to make each of those categories have a specialty-show feel, from paint and decor to tools and lawn and garden,” Cappiello says.

Co-locations get cozier
For shows with little negotiating clout or those looking for a way to shore up attendance, co-locating with another event can be a very attractive prospect. Today, an increasing number of show producers see joining forces with a like-minded group as a viable option.
Dennis Slater, president of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, co-producer of the triannual CONEXPO-CON/AGG show, says approaching the National Fluid Power Association to co-locate with IFPE, the International Exposition for Power Transmission, has yielded mutually beneficial results. When the two Milwaukee-based groups first co-located last year, more than 108,000 attended the combined event.
“What we saw in our industry was a manufacturing consolidation,” Slater explains. “IFPE has the same exhibitor base, and we thought there were synergies in efficiencies as well as logistics.”

CONEXPO, the larger of the two shows, took over management for the IFPE portion, which in turn gave the smaller event better leverage in contract negotiations, Slater says, adding that there also were savings achieved from the overlapping of promotional materials.

Slater says both groups worked carefully to preserve the character of the smaller IFPE so participants didn’t feel lost in the shuffle. “One key has always been to keep the two shows’ identities,” he notes. “There is some equity built in these names, and they have good followings.”

Others who have co-located agree preserving individual show and brand identities is crucial to being able to cross-market and promote the value of a combined show to exhibitors and attendees alike.

“It is important for us to maintain our individuality,” says David Gagnon, director of operations for the Greenfield, Mass.-based Organic Trade Association. In 2004, he notes, the OTA will move from Austin, Texas, to Chicago’s McCormick Place to co-locate with three other specialty food trade shows.“We’ll have a separate hall, and educational programs will be separate, as will special events such as dinners,” says Gagnon.

“Co-location makes sense,” agrees Mary Beth Rebedeau, executive director of the Chicago Ridge, Ill.-based Society of Independent Show Organizers. “It builds attendance and boosts the attraction to exhibitors and potential exhibitors. This trend is here to stay.”

PDAs for all
With Palm Pilots and their handheld ilk becoming ubiquitous in the business world, a number of trade show producers are tapping into wireless beaming technology to provide participants with show news, exhibitor contacts and more.

Dallas-based Meeting Professionals International jumped on the trend this year at its Professional Education Conference in February. The convenience of paper-free data at the touch of a stylus was so popular that MPI decided to provide the same service at its August conference and will do so again in 2004.

The conference’s use of Petaluma, Calif.-based vendor NearSpace technology was a hit with attendees, says an MPI spokesperson, “not only because of the PDA software that delivers critical conference information to their fingertips, but also for the special MPI-attendee-only discounts provided for hardware.”

Dino Schweitzer, chief staff executive for the graphics industry show SIGGRAPH, says his attendees also gave thumbs-up to having show guides on their PDAs. “They could click on a map of the exhibit floor or search speaker by speaker,” he says, adding that NearSpace is especially user-friendly.

Despite rave reviews at the 2002 event in San Antonio, Schweitzer says SIGGRAPH almost did away with the technology for 2003. “This year, we were in the same budget crunch as several other conferences,” he notes. When he explained the fiscal logjam, however, the vendor offered a proposal: If NearSpace could have permission to sell virtual ad space to Schweitzer’s exhibitors, the data would be free, and the show would only have to pay rental fees on beaming stations.

Schweitzer gave the OK. “Our experience working with them was very positive,” he says. “They worked directly with the exhibitors to sell the ads, and it was quite painless on our part.”

Private events have pull
While some producers view private exhibitor events as a drain, since they take attendees away from the show floor and require resources to be diverted from the show itself, a growing number are adopting an “if you can’t beat them, join them” approach, often with success.

“We work aggressively with exhibitors in a way that is beneficial to them and supportive to the show,” says Galen Poss of Hanley-Wood. When one major exhibitor expressed interest in holding a private client event, Poss and his team worked with them to hold it in conjunction with the show, rather than take the risk that the nearly 3,000 attendees would choose the exhibitor’s event and shun the rest.

The exhibitor got the benefit of Hanley-Wood’s leverage when negotiating with suppliers; in return, the event delivered roughly 1,000 first-time attendees to the trade show.

Some organizers have even taken the radical step of making private events the focus of their shows. For its 2002 event, the Encino, Calif.-based Video Software Dealers Association decided to move the action from the show floor into meeting rooms, something attendees say they prefer because they can keep their sales discussions private.

Likewise, the New York City-based International Council of Shopping Centers holds what it calls a leasing mall, where development owners and retailers can negotiate lease terms in a confidential setting that costs less than a large booth with meeting space built in.

Fee-less can be freeing
In August, Framingham, Mass.-based show producer IDG World Expo announced it was eliminating fees previously charged to exhibitors who want to use their own service providers for some trade show labor. These providers, exhibitor-appointed contractors, set up and take down exhibitors’ booths. Many were at a disadvantage when bidding against a producer’s preferred contractor, since exhibitors were charged a fee for bringing in their own people, in addition to the labor charges.

“A fee to obtain their own suppliers is something that would gall many exhibitors,” says Jim Wurm, president of the Bend, Ore.-based Exhibitor Appointed Contractor Association. “Exhibitors are highly sensitive to costs, particularly those they have difficulty justifying to senior management. I’m sure the elimination of this fee will be met very warmly by IDG’s customers.”
Wurm points out that IDG might even benefit financially from killing the fee, not only because customers will be happier, but because they are more likely to reinvest those dollars back into the show. “It’s a self-serving decision for IDG,” he says. “The way they do well is by helping their exhibitors do well.”

Multiple contractors at a show mean more paperwork, though, and more overhead for a show producer. To address this, Wurm says, “We’ve created a capability that lets exhibitors register their contractors, which reduces the administrative costs of registering them for the show.”

David Korse, president of IDG World Expo, said customer feedback led the producer to drop the fees. “It was clear it’s not in the best interest of our customers to collect those fees,” he says. Korse believes exhibitors will be more loyal to IDG’s roster of trade shows because they will be able to save money as well as feel their concerns are being addressed.

New attitudes on audits
IDG also jumped into the fray on one of the industry’s most contentious issues: auditing attendance at trade shows. In August, the firm announced it would begin auditing all of its events, starting next year.

“The event industry continues to be challenged to compete for our share of tighter marketing budgets and reduced resources,” says Korse. “We need to continue to prove the value of event participation.” Korse considers accurate attendance figures to be the industry’s “Achilles’ heel,” adding if producers like IDG can turn that around, “increased confidence should equate to increased client retention and more successful new client development.”

Hanley-Wood’s Poss concedes IDG’s decision was a smart one, since the technology trade show market is so competitive. “Although our industry has been reluctant to embrace audits, I think it will prompt people in the tech sector that hold competing events to do so,” he says.

IAEM’s Steven Hacker agrees, saying, “I would adopt it simply to lay down a marker to competitors.” Hacker also points out that IDG’s newly sharpened focus on exhibitors’ needs is a good sign for the industry at large, showing the sector is starting to climb out of its slump.

“I sense a return of optimism in the past three months,” says Hacker. “People have either convinced themselves it’s time to think positively, or things in the business community have really turned. I think it’s a combination of both.”