CES 2010 attendance up while exhibitor participation drops

Here is an interesting article on the shape of 2010 Exhibition season. CES has shown that attendees are ready to jump back into the market; it will be really interesting to see how exhibitors react. 2009 was a year of cautiousness, but based on our discussions with clients, 2010 looks like it will be much more active than 2009. Written by Aleta Walther

Many consider the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas each January to be the bellwether event of the tradeshow industry, the crystal ball foretelling the general health of the tradeshow industry for the coming year. If such is the case, show producers and exhibitors may see an up tick in show-related attendance and/or business throughout 2010. On the other hand, general contractors, installation and dismantle (I and D) companies, exhibit houses and other tradeshow suppliers must still contend with corporate cutbacks that are negatively impacting tradeshow attendance. Held at the Las Vegas Convention Center and several neighboring hotel venues January 7-10, CES is the world's largest tradeshow for consumer technology and one of the largest shows worldwide. According to a CES press release, about 120,000 attendees registered for the 2010 event, up about 6 percent over the 2009 attendance of 113,085. It sounds optimistic until you consider that the 2008 CES had a verified attendance of about 141,000 visitors; that's about a 5 percent drop between 2008 attendance and 2010 attendance. Admittedly, there are probably more than a few show producers that will believe a 5 percent dip in show attendance this year over last year is tolerable as many experienced attendance slides of 20 to 30 percent between their 2008 shows and 2009. Although CES attendance was up in 2010 compared to 2009, the number of exhibiting companies dropped 7.4 percent from about 2,700 exhibitors in 2008 and 2009 to 2,500 for 2010. In closing, this writer would like to add that having spent five days on the show floor, I am happy to report that the show's overall energy appeared stronger and attendee and exhibitor enthusiasm higher compared to 2009. So, I am going to opt to see the CES glass as half full.

Beyond The Ordinary – How to Stand-Out at a Show

The show is busy, lots of people milling about. The perfect opportunity to ensure your investment in your tradeshow program pays off. At a show, it is all about ROI. You want to generate a positive ROI (defined as [Sales divided by Investment $ > 1]) at every show. So how do you stand-out from the crowd?

1. Keep it simple – elaborate methods of garnering attention cost a lot and require you to push more sales through to generate a positive ROI. Sometimes the most effective ways are the least expensive ways. I once saw a large number of an exhibitor's staff wearing large brown paper bags as their uniforms. They would hang around the aisles and were handing out environmentally friendly paper bags for carrying swag. Cheap, simple yet very effective. The simple cartoon below, while not very repeatable is an example of a very effective "gimmick" – when it works.
2. Focus on your theme – the "paper bag" company was an environmental company and the attention grabbing method they choose fit well with their theme, significantly enhancing memorability. It takes time and a lot of effort to come up with a theme that is cost-effective, memorable, fits in with your company's products, and is one that your staff will embrace. Brainstorming prior to attending a show is crucial, and no idea no matter how outlandish should be ignored.
3. Keep it consistent – make sure your theme is carried through from your pre-show mail outs, to show presence, and finally to post-show follow up. Repetition of a theme allows your presence to stand-out from the crowd and remind prospects of why they need to deal with you. You may want to consider a tease of the theme in your pre-show mail outs, a full unveiling at the show, and then an evolution of the theme for the post-show follow up. A simple example for a cataract surgery hospital may be to send a glass eye with the quote "an eye for an eye making the whole world blind". Ask them to bring the eye to your booth. At the show, hand out inexpensive toys without the eyes and put the first eye into the doll. Have them complete a survey and as their reward, the remaining eye will be mailed to them. The "evolution" may be that the eye is a different colour and is the result of a positive cataract surgery. At the same time you will send them your marketing material and put them into your database for a follow-up call.

Have fun with themes and ideas, but don't spend a lot of money on brochures or giveaways that the attendee will not keep. They have enough pens, pads, envelope openers, key chains, etc. Give them something that will appeal to their children and the odds of them keeping it will significantly increase. When their children play with it the positive associations with your company will be well worth the investment.

Companies Beware – Adapt or Die

As a medium sized company that has offices across Canada and literally thousands of clients, we have many opportunities to engage in dialogue with companies from different market segments. Whether a burgeoning IT company located in Ottawa or a multi-national with a head office in Toronto, all companies are facing similar challenges. The primary challenge rests around how to adapt to a market that is changing at rapid pace. At The Portables we are not immune to the market changes and have found the last two years to be ones of rapid change.

As managers you would agree that you have a full-time job just dealing with existing issues; having to also change the organization is a burden you are not really equipped for. Rest assured that you are not alone. The percentage of the population that are early adopters is quite small, based on my rudimentary Google search, somewhere between 5-10% of the population. So how do we fight our inherent nature to avoid change, yet still stay ahead of the competition? Based on my observations and actions with The Portables, and in my discussions with our clients here is my two cents (after all what kind of a blog does not have a list of takeaways).

1. Just do it – yes you will make mistakes but if you wait for the 100 page research document, that will only prompt further questions, the market would have moved again. Now if you are making a $20 million investment in a new plant or new technology, ignore this adage and do a lot of research.
   

   
    

2. Obsess about it – watch what happens in the marketplace once your initiative has launched. Watch it like a hawk and talk to everyone about it. You will see what is working well and what needs to be tweaked.
   

   
    

3. Do it again – fix the shortcomings from the initial launch and put it out there again.
   

   
    

Now one caveat – before you do it, please make sure that your head and gut are saying it is the right thing to do. We recently launched an online ordering system for our company www.theportables.com/online, but prior to doing so I thought out the pros and cons for a period of time. My head and gut were in total congruence when I launched it. Could I have executed the launch better? Absolutely. Did I make a mistake by launching it when I did? Absolutely not. We learned a huge amount from the launch and have fixed a number of bugs that we could not have envisioned in our beta testing. There are too many variables in the world to actually beta test them all.

Really good article on change management http://www.edistalearning.com/KnowledgePapers/PM_001-arup_infosys.pdf

 

EIC Formed to Combat Industry Concerns

Courtesy of Exhibitors Daily

Five meetings industry associations have banded together to form a new group, the Exhibit Industry Council (EIC), to address concerns from trade show exhibitors and to promote best practices for serving exhibitors at trade shows, exhibitions and events.

Representatives from the five associations met in San Francisco, where they agreed to meet quarterly in order to advocate for trade show exhibitors on hot-button issues. 

The associations are the Corporate Event Marketers Association (CEMA), Exhibit Designers & Producers Association (EDPA), Exhibitor Appointed Contractor Association (EACA), Healthcare Exhibitors Association (HCEA) and Trade Show Exhibitors Association (TSEA).

"The EIC's goal is to unify all trade show industry stakeholders to support reputable, consistent standards through the use of best practices that support world-class service at trade shows," said EIC founding member Eric Allen, HCEA executive vice president. He added that industry-wide standards for trade shows and exhibitions are critical for the industry, which must cut costs yet provide superior customer service to retain exhibitors and remain viable.