Take the Stand

May 5, 2009

And, I had to tell ‘em all the truth. Before I get to that, however, I’ll pose the same question to you as I posed to them – why aren’t you here?
Part of my job involves going to a decent-sized portfolio of domestic and foreign trade events in a year. Anyone who’s read this column also knows that I have plenty of stories concerning the hundreds of miles I’ve trod on thinly carpeted concrete, and seeing oddities from a salesman dressed as a nun to Donald Trump swearing his way through an exhibit hall. (Oddly enough, both occurred at the same show.)
I’ve seen shows where you literally had to claw through bodies to get through the aisles. At others, I’ve heard exhibitors pleading with promoters to close the show early and put everyone out of their collective misery.
Coverings 2009 didn’t hit any of those extremes. Although attendance numbers aren’t available yet, it’s a certainty that the total number of people walking the floor at McCormick Place will be down significantly.
In other words, it was slow. Very slow.
The paucity of attendees isn’t the fault of the show’s promoters. Coverings 2009 got plenty of ink in trade publications, plus the attack of direct mail and bunches of banners and buttons on the Net. Chicago often gets a knock – sometimes well-deserved – for being a pricey place to attend a show, but hotels drastically slashed rates in the weeks before the event.
Everyone knows the culprit in 2009: The economy’s lousy. Attendees decided they couldn’t afford to take in the show and found it a quick way to cut costs. And who’s buying nowadays, anyway?
The same reasoning applied to a host of former Coverings exhibitors; the list of companies appearing in Orlando in 2008 and skipping Chicago this year would’ve made an impressive show in itself. And, of course, who’s buying nowadays?
Trade events, however, are more than buying-and-selling. I’ve noted before that, especially in the stone industry, shows are communal. You don’t get many chances to be among other fabricators, installers and restorers in a neutral, non-competitive place, with the opportunity to swap stories, information and tricks of the trade.
Shows are also the place to learn about different products and vendors, view product demos and talk to company reps. When you look at a list of exhibitors and see who won’t be there, there’s less desire to attend a show.
Industry vendors are going through some tough times as well; the less stone that’s cut and installed in the market, the fewer the orders for tooling and machines. Companies need to trim budgets as well, and the open floor space at Coverings reflected the thrift.
Those vendors with booths in Chicago did a fair amount of grumbling. Some of the complaints centered on the lack of commercial credit – the fuel of large machine purchases – and some decried the down economy.
More than a few, however, groused about trade shows. Not just Coverings, but any event. Maybe it’s time, they said, to just boycott shows altogether until things get better.
To which I counter: Just how did your get all those customers earlier in the decade? What about those years when attendees came fast and order books got fat? Trade shows offered a way to way to gain new customers and build up existing accounts, and they sure boosted the bottom line.
To be sure, exhibitors pay a lot of freight – literally – for trade shows. Attendees walking down the aisles and viewing shiny equipment aren’t aware of the costs of operating a stand at an event. All those reps in a booth represent tens of thousands of dollars in hotel rooms, meals and airline tickets, and it takes plenty of orders to offset those bills.
And then there’s a word that pains vendors: drayage. Carting the goods and booths involves some hefty fees; for example, in some exhibit halls, a company may pay $10,000-$20,000 to exhibition-hall staff for each machine to be moved just from the loading dock to the booth.
Add some stiff costs for everything from electrical outlets to urns of “free” coffee, and that’s one expensive piece of carpet to rent for a few days. It’s tough to justify the return on investment.
The problem with not exhibiting, though, is that there’s a connection lost with customers. Attendees get peeved with companies that aren’t at a show; it’s a form of support they’re not getting. Suddenly, the vendors who show up start getting a lot more attention.
Attendees and exhibitors have legitimate beefs with high costs, especially in the current economy. The lockstep of using only a few cities for events, for example, does need some further examination; not everyone’s fond of flying cross-country or paying top prices, and what’s convenient for organizers may be anything but for the true customers.
Exhibitors may also need to try something other than plunking non-operative machines on a show floor as expensive window-dressing. A few years ago, I saw a company show off equipment through a Webcast to its captive shop 2,000 miles away, producing jobs requested from the show floor. It wasn’t cheap, but neither is dragging several tons of steel to sit inert in a convention hall.
Blowing off trade shows for a year or two because times are thin, though, can offer false comfort for everyone involved. Staying home may seem like the safe play – but the risk is in what you’ve missed.

Emerson Schwartzkopf can be reached at emerson@stonebusiness.net. His blog can be found at Stone Business Online and stonebusinesseditor.wordpress.com.