NATPE's Back
Bending to exhibitors' demands pays off for organizers of annual show for TV producers
By Heidi Genoist -- Tradeshow Week, 2/2/2004
LAS VEGAS—The extraordinary efforts made by the Natl. Assn. of Television Production Executives to appease disgruntled exhibitors and keep its tradeshow afloat have started paying off. NATPE 2004 – if not the pizzazz-filled event it was in the late '90s – generated buzz and business beyond most participants' expectations.
The Jan. 18-20 show at the Sands Expo and Convention Center and the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino drew 350 exhibiting companies and between 7,000 and 8,500 attendees, according to preliminary projections by NATPE. This compares favorably with 350 exhibitors and 4,286 attendees at the 2003 show in New Orleans.
NATPE Senior Vice President of Conference Operations and Sales Nick Orfanopoulos said this year's exhibition was 35 percent larger than last year's, at 70,000 net square feet – a big accomplishment for an association that has suffered sharp exhibitor criticism about costs, service and location over the last three years. The last Las Vegas show, at the convention center in 2002, saw the exodus of major television program makers from the show floor into hotel suites, where several remain.
However, a new approach was adopted when Rick Feldman took over as NATPE president and CEO, replacing embattled former chief Bruce Johansen.
The association now handles booking of space both on the show floor and in exhibit suites, recuperating some of the costs lost over the last two years. In addition, by offering major companies turnkey exhibit packages in the $100,000 to $200,000 range, including all services, organizers were able to entice Sony, Universal, Carsey-Werner-Mandabach and others back onto the floor.
"This meeting is really well attended by distributors, and our sales people have been in meetings the whole time," said Sony Pictures Television Executive Vice President John Weiser, touching on NATPE 2004's most important feat: getting the industry to do business on the show floor again. Regulation, consolidation and technology have changed television's dealmaking landscape, leaving many distributors and syndicators to wonder why they need an annual event.
But a determined Feldman retooled the meeting with cutting edge conferences and networking events to give it meaning beyond the show floor.
"It had great buzz," said Marcia Orcutt, a sales director for trade magazine Broadcasting & Cable (and sister Reed Business Information publication of Tradeshow Week), who has attended NATPE for 15 years. Orcutt said she was impressed by the amount of business done there this year.
As for 2005, Orfanopoulos said NATPE couldn't start signing up exhibitors on-site, since the association won't decide where to hold the next show until its board meeting the first weekend in February.
