2012 Gold Rush - Trade Show Executive

INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS
Founded: 1906
At-A-Glance
ABM: Redefining B-to-B
BY DANICA TORMOHLEN, contributing editor
Membership: 200-plus business
information and media companies that
reach an audience of more than 100
million professionals and represent
nearly 4,000 print and online titles
and 1,000+ trade shows, with more
than $20 billion in annual revenues
ABM Annual Conference: Held April
29-May 2 in San Francisco, the 2012
event attracted 220 attendees. The
2013 event will be held April 28-
May 1 at the Omni Amelia Island
Plantation in Amelia Island, FL.
Executive Forum: Scheduled for
Oct. 22-23 at the Trump International
Hotel & Tower in Chicago, the forum
will focus on driving recurring revenue
through paid content and business
information models.
Neal Awards: Established in 1955,
the Jesse H. Neal National Business
Journalism Awards recognize and reward
editorial excellence in business
media. The 59th Annual Neal Awards
ceremony will take place on March
12, 2013, in New York, NY.
New York, NY – In the not so distant past,
ABM (formerly known as American
Business Media) represented business
magazine publishers, an influential group
focused primarily on print. Some might
have even called the 106-year-old business
trade association the old boys’ network.
But as print declined during the recession
and media channels continued to
fragment in the digital age, ABM needed
to reexamine the increasing array of
business models available to the B-to-B
industry and redefine its mission and
membership accordingly. When Clark
Pettit, president & CEO, took over two
years ago, the association and the B-to-B
industry had been sent into a tailspin.
“It was pretty tough,” said Pettit, who
has a strong corporate background that
includes stints at Accenture, Accent
Media Group and EMI Music. “It truly
was the perfect storm. The growth of the
Internet and new media, coupled with the
financial collapse and a decade of overleveraging
by many media companies,
came together at the same time.”
The Perfect Storm
Legacy print media companies had to
adapt by diversifying their revenues,
adding new channels such as data, events,
information, marketing services, video
and social media. Face-to-face events
and online revenue clearly represent the
greatest growth potential for the industry
and the association.
Based on 2012 First Quarter numbers,
ABM’s Business Information Network (BIN)
Report released in June revealed that event
revenue rose 1.5% while print revenue
dropped (3.5)% in 2012, compared with
the First Quarter of 2011. Trade print
revenue saw a decline to $1.82 billion from
$1.88 billion in the First Quarter of 2011,
while trade event revenue rose from $2.94
billion in the First Quarter of 2011 to $2.99
billion during the same period in 2012.
Since 2010, ABM has reversed a
two-year decline in membership and
implemented a strategic plan that is now
delivering a compounded 22% annual
revenue growth. How? “We’ve had to
rethink what the industry is, where it’s
going and how to help accelerate the
adoption of a wide set of new business
models while promoting and defending
the broader industry,” said Pettit. “The
association model is changing, and we
are now very ROI-focused.”
Continued on page 33 (behind insert)
32 November 2012 | Trade Show Executive