TSMI's Trade Show Marketing Report

Meckler: "What, Me Worry?"

The Lone Maverick is at it again.

This from Tradeshow Week's Nov. 8 issue.

Battle of the IT Shows Alan Meckler, CEO of Jupitermedia, has set his guns at Hannover Fairs USA’s CeBIT America by launching a new technology show in the same city, New York, and on overlapping dates. He made the announcement two weeks prior to the debut of his Enterprise IT Week, which challenges MediaLive Intl.’s COMDEX in Las Vegas when it visits the Las Vegas Convention Center Nov. 18-22. The declaration has upset Hannover Fairs USA, which began its targeted enterprise event just this year to spread the CeBIT brand to America.

Given it's TSW, there's no link to the article, you have to read (buy) the print version.

Those of you who've followed this blog and it's predecessor (Xiled in Sofia) know that I have the highest esteem for Alan and wish there were more colorful promoters like him in our industry. But I'm wondering if he's stretching with this announcement.

After all, if you go to Alan's blog (no permalink, so go to the Nov. 6 entry), you'll see that his Vegas launch of Enterprise IT Week is only at 50 exhibitors. Given that Comdex is predicted to be only about a third of its former hugeness, that's still a couple hundred exhibitors and probably more than a couple hundred thousand nsf larger than Alan's Vegas event.

CeBIT's New York launch this past summer was probably less than HannoverUSA envisioned when they commited to the US market (despite Mark Dineen's official comments) (btw, the audited attendance was 8,510), but wasn't all that bad, especially considering the business environment in which they were selling against (NASDAQ was still in the pits during their sales cycle).

Conventional show management thought dictates that you don't expand a franchise until it's firmly established. Then again, "conventional" is not a word you'd use to describe Alan Meckler. Instead, what he's doing with this NYC launch is straight out of the Proctor & Gamble playbook - make the other guy spend more to get market share.

Alan's company, JupiterMedia, has had tremendous success at launching niche events utilizing Internet.com's content areas (Search Engine Strategies, 802.11, etc.). Although Alan made his reputation with the now-defunct Internet World (the 1998 sale of which freed him to build his new publishing empire), and much of his current staff came from Penton's IT division which sold Internet World, the current climate is not conducive to launching horizontal IT events.

I'd tend to think that the only way Meckler will get traction is if his events challenge the the concept of the 'traditional' corporate IT event by concentrating less on exhibit sales and more on creating value and ROI - perhaps a format that bears greater resemblance to a Gartner IT Symposium than the old Internet World. That would likely play well in the NYC market.

Then again, I don't put anything past him. We'll know in a couple of weeks how the Vegas launch did. This will be a story worth following.

Do Tradeshow Attendees Have Any Musical Taste?

I'm asking this question because I noticed that Surfaces, a pretty big show in Las Vegas, is having Kool and the Gang play at their opening reception.

Like you, I've heard several too many renditions of "Celebration" by lousy wedding bands. I didn't like the song when it first came out on an Edison cylinder.

I noticed Kool and the Gang also played the recent ASAE event in Hawai'i. And they do corporate gigs, which is hardly a sign of kool.

That's one reason I miss the big tech shows. You'd usually get something interesting - ethereal "ambient" Radiohead (circa Kid-A) wannabes, club music that could range from Britpop remixes to industrial, or occasionally the real thing, like P-Funk.

I suppose if you're on a budget you get what you can get. I guess KC and the Sunshine Band and Laura Brannigan were booked.

I can only think that someday 30 years from now, those of you still attending tradeshows will undoubtedly encounter the New Kids (who will be in their 60s) or Justin Timberlake/Britney Spears (who will look much like present-day Steve and Eydie) or if you're lucky, Eminem, whom I doubt will mellow much between now and 2033.

Of course by then you should be able to get Kool and the Gang REALLY cheap.

Are These Statistics Relevant?

It's November, 2003.

However, if you go to the "Trade Show Trends" link on Tradeshowweek.com, you'll notice that they're a little behind.

But that's not the point I want to make with this post. The point is, where are they getting these figures on "the average show"?

Here's what they posted as "average" for the 4th quarter of 2001. That's right... THAT 4th quarter.

"The Average Show
The average tradeshow during the fourth quarter of 2001 spanned 165,962 net square feet, down from 230,168 feet the previous quarter. On average, tradeshows had 573 exhibiting companies and were visited by 14,396 professional attendees. The average exhibitor purchased 290 square feet of booth space, and the average attendee to exhibitor ratio was 20 to 1, up from 19 to 1 the previous quarter. "

Mind you, these would be mindboggling statistics even if it weren't right after 9/11. I've worked more than 60 events, 14 or so of which were in the TradeshowWeek 200. If I remember correctly, the National Plant Engineering & Maintenance Show, which I believe is still in the TSW200 at around #180 or so, only has about 165,000 nsf of exhibit space. And there are what, 10,000 or more trade shows in the US?

What TSW is saying is that the top 200 shows are roughly equal in exhibit space to the other 9,800.

I find that difficult to comprehend. Any takers to explain this?

Goulash!

Appears I was quoted on this Hungarian site.

I just wish I knew what it said.