Medical Shows Are Stable

Medical and health care tradeshows that took place in the second half of 2003 had a steady heartbeat, thanks in part to an 8.5-percent bump in professional attendance over the same period in 2002.

According to the Tradeshow Week Semiannual Medical & Health Care Show Report, this sector saw improvement across the board, with increases of 1.7 percent in net square footage and 1.5 percent in the number of exhibiting companies.

Medical and health care show managers credited their success to the appeal of their selected cities, sizeable contingents of international attendees and the need for medical professionals and facilities to stay on the cutting edge.

The West Coast was the most popular location during this period, with San Diego leading the region. Nevertheless, Jerry Goldsmith, vice president of marketing programs for the American Assn. for Clinical Chemistry, thinks the Northeast is the best place for his show, the AACC/ASCLS Annual Meetings & Clinical Lab Expo (American Assn. for Clinical Chemistry/American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science).

"The Philadelphia venue is exceptional for medical shows," Goldsmith said. He partially credits his July show's 14-percent jump in professional attendance to the City of Brotherly Love's proximity to other large metropolitan areas. Goldsmith said he also appreciates the substantial concentration of medical institutions within several city blocks of the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

Dr. David Nash, chairman of the Department of Health Policy at Philadelphia's Jefferson Medical College and a speaker at the AACC Annual Meeting, said it is generally accepted knowledge that "one out of four U.S. doctors at one time or another passes through Philadelphia for some aspect of their training." Three of the 40 shows in this report chose Philadelphia for their venue.

In addition to an interesting locale, show managers said attendees told them variety was key. "They like it when we mix up the locations and go to new places or ones that we haven't been to in a while," said Sasha Sutherland, corporate relations manager for the American Assn. of Blood Banks. Sutherland noted that 2003 was the AABB Annual Meeting & Transfusion Medicine Expo's first visit to San Diego in more than 10 years. Although professional attendance at the November show only increased 3 percent, net square footage and number of exhibiting companies rose 18 and 15 percent, respectively.

Several show managers said they weren't necessarily affected by instability in the U.S. economy during this period because of the large number of international attendees at their shows. Fifty percent of the August Florida Intl. Medical Expo's attendance is from abroad, said Brad Mandell, COO for the Miami Beach show.

Attendance from Western Europe was significantly up for the AACC Annual Meeting, said Goldsmith. Twenty-five percent of the meeting's attendees travel from outside the United States.

Mandell, who forecasts "phenomenal growth" for his show in 2004 and beyond, said that if the trend continues, the Florida Intl. Medical Expo would double in size by 2005. "Nothing matches the pace of our medical shows," he added. Mandell credits medical facilities' need to acquire new equipment each year and an easing of companies' previous fears about spending money in volatile times. "Everyone who was holding back and was worried about the economy is now coming back," Mandell said.

Many exhibitors reported excellent sales at the American Dental Assn. Annual Session, held in San Francisco last October, said James P. Donovan, the show's exhibit manager. "The success stories of record sales were a welcome change over the past couple years," Donovan said. "We wanted to under-promise and over-perform for the exhibitors."

Based on the medical and health care shows that provided statistics for both 2002 and 2003, the year overall saw a boost of 6.9 percent in professional attendance, 4.1 percent in number of exhibiting companies and 3.7 percent in net square footage.

The average 2003 medical show occupied 87,904 net square feet of paid exhibit space, had 330 exhibiting companies and attracted 7,995 professional attendees. The average exhibitor purchased 264 square feet of booth space; the average ratio of attendees to exhibiting companies was 24-1.