the September 2008 Issue in PDF Format - Trade Show Executive

T r e n d i n g & S p e n d i n g
Trade Show Executive’s Exposition Forecasting Board
Darlene Gudea,
Publisher & Editor,
Trade Show Executive
Frank Chow,
Senior Economist,
Trade Show Executive
Tom Caridi,
CFO,
Questex Media Group
Nancy Walsh,
Executive Vice President,
Reed Exhibitions
Chris Meyer,
Vice President, Convention Sales,
Las Vegas Convention and Visitors
Authority
“We have seen an increase in future business leads
over the last three months. Trade show attendance
at retail-related events has decreased moderately.
Construction, communications and technology events
have all had significant increases in attendance,
with some percentages reaching double digits.
Industry events such as DMAI [Destination Marketing
Association International] and MPI [Meeting
Professionals International] had double-digit growth
in attendance.”
Chris Meyer
cmeyer@lvcva.com
Margaret
Pederson,
President,
Amerix
Doug Ducate,
President & CEO,
Center for Exhibition
Industry Research (CEIR)
Tim McGill,
CEO,
Hargrove Inc.
Jack Chalden,
VP, Business Development
& Industry Relations,
BDMetrics, Inc.
Skip Cox,
President & CEO,
Exhibit Surveys
“The increased cost of travel will likely be the
primary driver of negative pressure on attendance
growth in the short term, probably more so than the
economy. This could result in increased regionality
of attendance for some shows. Nonetheless, we still
expect modest overall growth in attendance for the
year.
“Major B-to-B marketers are continuing to feel
cost-cutting pressures. Since exhibit and event budgets
are now commanding the largest percentage of the
marketing budget (according to recent research of B2B
marketers by Forrester and Marketing Profs), exhibits
and events are likely to be the biggest target. Longterm,
however, trade shows and events should fare
well as these same marketers are placing increased
importance and value on customer-facing activities,
according to research by the CMO Council. It will be
more critical in the future for exhibitions to substantiate
the ROI/ROO exhibitors can achieve at exhibitions as we
continually compete for marketing budgets.”
Skip Cox
skip@exhibitsurveys.com
14 September 2008 Trade Show Executive www.TradeShowExecutive.com