the April 2009 Issue in PDF Format - Trade Show Executive

Bob: You have had a truly diverse career
path. Your accounting background is
helpful as CEO, but what about law
enforcement?
Joe: Police work was incredibly valuable
to me. I had wonderful experiences
dealing with diverse people and solving
problems quickly. Those skills are an asset
in the trade show business. It also taught
me that most of the things considered
emergencies, especially at trade shows, are
not really emergencies. If we solve them in
a methodical manner, we are far better off
in the long run.
Bob: What’s your assessment of the justcompleted
MAGIC Show (February 17-19)?
Joe: Given the national retail numbers
and the state of the economy, I think
everybody was expecting the show to be
less robust than it was. We took a proactive
approach: we developed new platforms
for MAGIC, expanded services and remerchandised
the entire event.
Bob: What do you mean by “new
platforms”?
Joe: The show encompasses MAGIC Man,
a complete range of men’s fashions; WWD
MAGIC, a full spectrum of women’s
wear; Premium at MAGIC, the premium
apparel lines for men and women;
S.L.A.T.E., a collection for the surf, street
and skate communities; STREET, the
sportswear collection; ECOLLECTION,
an environmentally and socially aware
collection; KIDS, for the younger set;
and SOURCING at MAGIC, connecting
apparel companies with the fabric/supplier
industries. We created a better environment
for our exhibitors and attendees by remerchandising
all the areas, expanded
international brands and welcomed over
100 new exhibitors to the show.
Bob: Tell me about your turn-key booth
packages.
Joe: When I speak about the trade show
business, I often remark that we are
our own worst enemy: we make it so
complicated for companies to exhibit in
a trade show because almost everything
is a surprise. Typically, an exhibitor starts
spending its budget with a trade show
organizer for exhibit space, and then it has
to get a booth constructed. Next, it has
to worry about all the services – drayage,
electrical, etc. We have done something
about this at Advanstar, across all of our
shows: we created booth packages for our
customers to simplify the process. For one
turn-key price, exhibitors get an exhibitsystem
structure, services included, and
they just add their graphics and content.
These were available at different price
points throughout MAGIC and were
extremely successful.
Bob: I suspect they also provide a nice
savings in the long run.
Joe: Yes, they are far more cost-efficient
and worry-free. If there’s a problem with
the booth package, we have staff on-site
through partnerships with general service
contractors and exhibit builders. Hundreds
of our exhibitors took advantage of this
service this year at MAGIC.
Bob: What about your attendance and
exhibitor numbers this year?
Joe: We are still in the auditing process
and won’t have these for another two
weeks or so.
Bob: Are your shows audited by BPA?
Joe: No. I’ve never had an exhibitor ask
me for an audit.
Bob: How does our industry get past the
idea that trade show numbers have to grow
each time to be successful?
Joe: Guys like you have to stop asking that
as one of your first questions.
Bob: (laughing) What about your plans for
the next MAGIC show in August?
Joe: We are expanding on the booth
package concept. We have a couple of new
categories that we are looking at launching.
Our preliminary exhibitor feedback is that
they had a very positive show, and the
attendees liked the new format, so we will
continue what we were doing.
Bob: Advanstar has three distinct operating
sectors: fashion, life sciences and power
sports/automotive. How many events,
publications and eMedia offerings do you
have in your portfolio?
Joe: We have 150 events, 260 electronic
products and 68 publications. Please don’t
ask me to name them all.
Bob: How is the economy impacting each
sector?
Joe: The economy is affecting all of them.
The fashion and licensing businesses are
very susceptible to what’s going on in
retail. They are still strong and robust for
us, since we are the market leaders. But
this doesn’t mean that our customers are
not going through challenging times. Same
situation in our power sports business,
which is also retail-based. While we are not
seeing growth here, it is at least remaining
flat – which may be the new “up” for this
year.
Bob: And the rest of the portfolio?
Joe: Our life sciences and healthcare
business is still going through changes,
as it is primarily a publication and
conference business. These fluctuate due
to the changing regulations coming out
of Washington, DC. Also, the pharma
companies continue to play with the
formula of how they are going to introduce
drugs to the market, reflecting a slowdown
in the Federal Drug Administration. Our
conferences continue to be well attended,
ranging from 200 to 2,000 persons.
Bob: Any advice on the economy?
Joe: I don’t think it would be wise for
anyone to apply yesterday’s model to
today’s economic environment. Having
said that, the properties holding up the best
are those that are critical to our customers’
sales and marketing mix. It’s long been
an Advanstar strategy to focus on those
Number One and Two positions.
Bob: Recessions aren’t new. What are your
thoughts about this one?
Joe: If you look at the data, this recession
has been going on longer than most since
World War II. I’ve given up trying to figure
out where the bottom is. I differ from a
lot of my peers in believing that this will
reset at 2005/2006 levels. I think it will
reset somewhat lower. And the problem
with the stock market is that no one has
any confidence in it right now. People
were sure 7,000 was the absolute bottom
and yet the recent 300-point drop was
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