MATSO Is Back: Ellacott to Head Group

Does the tradeshow industry really need another show management association? The Major American Trade Show Organizers Assn. (MATSO), which has kept a low profile in the past few years, thinks so, and it is moving to increase its visibility and presence.

MATSO occupies a special niche, representing some of the largest tradeshows in America. The organization, founded in Chicago in 1985 to address the needs of large tradeshows, currently has a membership of just over 100 shows.

Much of the change MATSO's leadership is hoping for will come from expanding existing programs and increasing membership. To accomplish this, MATSO has named Meg Ellacott of Ellacott Productions as its new managing director. She replaces Judie Moore Green, who held the position for the past eight years.

Jack Chalden, MATSO chairman and SUPERCOMM general manager, said that when MATSO's board decided to expand the association's scope and reach, Green, who runs her own meeting planning business, could not devote any more time to the additional MATSO responsibilities. Ellacott's background managing larger events makes her a perfect fit for MATSO, Chalden said. She has managed such Tradeshow Week 200 events as HELI-EXPO, The SIA SnowSports Show, GRAPH EXPO and PRINT 97.

Ellacott said she intends to accelerate MATSO's activities and expand its profile via public and media relations to help make it a "more practical, effective tool for its members and the tradeshow industry."

She said future steps would include designing a new Web site and promotional piece to help expand membership, and presenting the views of MATSO members to others both in and outside the industry. Those views will come from MATSO's four city task forces and their best practices discussions, general information exchanges, and in the marketing, sales and operations portions of MATSO's meeting program.

Over the past two years, the association's twice-annual meetings have focused on issues such as marketing, sales and internationalization. Chalden said participation has increased gradually in recent years. MATSO met last August in Washington, D.C. as a stand-alone event and in January at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando. The Orlando gathering attracted about 35 show managers; the D.C. event, more than 50, according to Chalden.

MATSO is reinvigorating its mission partly because the group believes current industry challenges call for enhanced interaction between shows, and the need for action envisioned in the MATSO charter has never been more important. As examples of areas where the voices of large show producers should be heard, Chalden pointed to industry trends in standard setting and data analysis for economic impact modeling and audit procedures.

However, Jack Withiam Jr., executive vice president and general counsel of MATSO member George Little Management, said the number of tradeshow industry associations should shrink, not grow larger. This would work, Withiam said, provided the individual agendas of each group were maintained, since each has its specific focus and value to a core constituency. "But one organization would have more political impact and eliminate the need to go back to the same 'sponsors' all the time for contributions and support," he said.

So what do the industry's other association heads think of all this?

Dennis Slater, chairman of the Intl. Assn. for Exhibition Management and co-president of the Assn. of Equipment Manufacturers, said he hoped IAEM and MATSO would work closely together to better serve their common members and the exhibition industry as a whole.

MATSO's growth shouldn't impinge on that of the Society of Independent Show Organizers, said Mary Beth Rebedeau, executive director of SISO, since MATSO fills the unique needs of organizers of the largest tradeshows. Rebedeau believes that membership overlap between the two organizations is canceled out by the fact that SISO caters to business owners and MATSO to show organizers. "SISO's relationship with MATSO is very complementary," she said. "For example, we issued a joint statement on exclusives together with MATSO and IAEM in the fall."

Chalden said that he believes that MATSO will "compatibly and constructively interact and co-exist with IAEM and SISO because its needs are unique, its constituency embraces both private and association-owned events, its exclusive focus on large show dynamics and practices is clearly and narrowly defined, and its ability to quickly respond to industry issues and developments is facilitated by its small numbers."