Infinite Possibilities

In March of last year, after 22 years with Reed Exhibitions, Senior Vice President Tony Calanca moved on. Calanca – who had done just about everything there was to do at Reed, from heading North American operations, to leading the consumer show group, to launching and managing some of the company's most successful shows – had interviewed for positions in other firms, but ultimately decided to start his own company. He and three other former top Reed executives, Mark LoGiurato, Jamie Swanson and Nancy Jo Wiggin, pooled their resources and know-how to form Infinity Expo Group in Shelton, Conn.

During their first full year, the experienced foursome launched six owned or partially owned shows and landed management contracts for three more. Their most recent venture, a deal to run the launch of Tribeca Enterprises' behind-the-scenes entertainment expo, "So You Wanna Be in Pictures?" has them working with the likes of Robert DeNiro and other founders of the Tribeca Film Festival.

And if Infinity's been busy this past year, it's at least partially because the group doesn't shy away from sticky situations. Take, for instance, the co-launch with Cygnus Business Media of Security Systems & Solutions Expo, an event that will compete with Reed's ISC/East; or the interim management of the World Shoe Assn.'s WSA Show during WSA Executive Director Chris Aiken's unexplained leave of absence; or the contract to manage the American Hardware Manufacturers Assn.'s AHMA Hardware Show, which not only will compete with another Reed event, the Natl. Hardware Show, but was already being managed by another independent firm, ConvExx.

Calanca spoke with TSW Senior Associate Editor Heidi Genoist about his past at Reed, his future with Infinity and some of the challenges in between.

Question: What did you learn from your 22 years at Reed Exhibitions that you've taken with you to Infinity?

Answer: Almost everything I know about the tradeshow business. I was lucky to work for some very smart, generous people like Larry Charlin and Bob Krakoff.

Q: Did you learn anything you preferred to leave behind?

A: Yes, but it's not because they were bad things. I'm not talking about Reed in particular – it's the same with any large, publicly traded company. They spent a lot of time doing things that don't have anything to do with selling product and servicing customers: financial forecast meetings, budget meetings, HR overhead. When you're small, some of these things you don't need and some you can't afford. We don't have strategy plan meetings. What's our strategy? Make a profit.

Q: Many speculated you'd be in the running for Rick White's job as president of Reed Exhibitions North America, and yet you left shortly after he did in September 2002. Did your departure have anything to do with not getting his job?

A: Oh sure, and I said that at the time. I threw my hat in the ring and was advised that I wasn't a candidate. I can live with that. I'm a big boy; they're a big company and can make the decisions they have to. But I didn't want to wake up one day and be out, so I decided I better make a move. I interviewed for a few other jobs, and there were some interesting things, but I really wanted to own something. I looked around, but I ended up going in with LoGiurato, Swanson and Wiggin.

Q: Infinity has taken on a couple of shows in sectors where Reed already has established events. To some this might look almost like a vendetta. Is it?

A: (laughing) Yeah, that's it. We're going after their $80-million bottom line.

First of all, we were all on noncompetes. OK, so they expired. But let's say you leave your employer. Where would you launch? Where you know. Because you know it, you see where there are opportunities in the market. We launched the security show in New York, because there was a market for it. You have to feed a family, so you launch in sectors where you think you can make money.

Q: What do you think are the biggest challenges independent show organizers face today?

A: Rising costs to the exhibitors against difficult-to-quantify returns. Sometimes, in some shows, it is easy to peg what you sell. But even in those cases, not all exhibitors make the calculation.

It used to be about two things: sell the space, fill the aisles. Now, the actual commerce takes place in a lot of different ways. The channels of distribution have changed, so you have to demonstrate other reasons for people to get together.

Q: What kind of reasons?

A: Education, entertainment, making contacts that may turn into a sale long-term, or a product introduction.

Q: You took over management of the World Shoe Assn.'s WSA Show on an interim basis while Chris Aiken is on leave of absence. What was that like?

A: It was very interesting, because it's a huge show – 700,000 net square feet, twice a year. And they run them in a linear fashion, which means they don't start the February show until the August one is over. We came in on Oct. 13 and had to start from scratch. So, we had just under four months. Guys with 5,000 square foot exhibits who are building new displays would like to know more than just where they're gonna be on the floor.

When you're going in and working with existing staff, you have to earn their respect and get along with them while you have all these other time pressures. If you're experienced in the tradeshow business, you can go in and draw the boxes, but you have no context about the customers: Who's this guy? What's his product? Where does he need to be? Who has to be near him? Who has to be far away? We know how to organize shows, but we don't know shoes.

Q: How many more shoe shows is Infinity signed up to manage?

A: We continue on an interim basis, and they have advised us we will be managing the August show.

Q: What are the ups and downs of working with associations in general?

A: When you are a management company for hire, you serve at the pleasure of the client. So, you try always to work hard to keep the client happy. But if you have a rotating board, you can lose your job overnight. That's the business we're in.

Q: Infinity has been very busy with launches. What else have you got planned?

A: I will tell you this about the deal with Robert DeNiro and Tribeca: We're getting astounding response. And it's an unusual product for us: a third end-user, a third consumer and a third fan fest. There are huge dollar sponsorships that people are talking to us about. When you say you're working with Robert DeNiro, you would be amazed how many doors open for you. As for other launches, we have about four things in development that will all be owned launches.

Q: What industries are they in?

A: I'll just say, a couple are consumer and a couple trade. We won't launch all four, and we won't launch all that do come about this year. That's the drawback of being a small company. If one hits, we'll be delighted. We don't have any lack of ideas, because our definition of success is different than it would be for a big company.

Q: You spent a lot of time in Reed's consumer show division. Do you plan to focus on that at Infinity?

A: Consumer shows are something where we can work because we can make what is, for us, a fair and reasonable profit. We're working on a couple of them that we're very excited about.

Q: How do you decide which markets to go into?

A: We think there are opportunities for high-priced events. Pick any show that's successful. You can't just throw it in any city. You have to have some market gap. Then, if you can find some pricing opportunities, you can be successful, but it will be on a smaller scale. We could barely pay a big company's phone bill with what we make on some shows, but that revenue is in line with the resources we have. The hope is you get there someday. We're looking for the next 100,000 bucks, not the next million.

Q: What is the most important issue the tradeshow industry needs to confront?

A: We have to figure out how to address the cost issue for the really large exhibitors. There are shows where you have companies buying 10, 15, 20,000 square feet. Out of every dollar spent, 30 percent goes to exhibit space. I would argue that as they get disproportionately large, that percentage gets lower. They've got $200,000 of exhibit space and a $2.5-million budget. The higher-ups are asking where all the money's going.

You tell them to buy less space, and they say they can't because they're the number one brand in the market, and it's about image marketing. They'd rather just drop out. You love them when they're buying space by the acre. But when they drop out, you can't make it up. You and I could go down the list of the TSW 200 and pick out the shows with exhibitors that have pulled out and started their own events.

Q: What is the solution?

A: You have to find nontransactional ways to participate. Put the value on convening. Look at the Gartner model. 10'x10's at flat fees with tremendous content they create for $3,500. How great would it be if you had a plumbing show like that?