Show Renovation: Coverings Turns Over New Stone
By Vanessa VanderZanden -- Tradeshow Week, 8/2/2004
Sometimes an old show just needs a few new tricks.
That's why the board of Intl. Tile Expo, the holding company comprised of five international associations that owns Coverings, decided last July to transfer show management duties from Florida-based Trade Show Intl. to Virginia-based Natl. Trade Productions.
"You find in all businesses, the people who started the business are different from those involved there on in," said Bob Daniels, executive director emeritus of the Tile Council of America and corporate secretary of Intl. Tile Expo. "You shift from entrepreneurial to management ideas," Daniels said. "You need different skills."
In making the management change the board indicated boosting attendance was a priority. According to Tradeshow Week research, attendance at Coverings (held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando the last several years) fell from 21,641 in 2002 to 18,892 in 2003.
The largest annual tradeshow in the Western Hemisphere for ceramic tile and natural stone floor coverings, Coverings had been managed by TSI for the last 17 years. The switch caught show participants off guard, but NTP managed to coordinate the event on only eight-months' notice, and took steps to steer the show in some new directions.
Tamara Christian, president of NTP, said that despite the short amount of advance time, her team did what it could to sell the event to exhibitors and attendees. Because the show moved into the convention center's new, slightly smaller North/South Building this year (a decision made before NTP came on board), a number of exhibitors had to go on a wait list. That is the main reason cited for net square footage dropping from 518,956 in 2003 to 484,234 in 2004 and the number of exhibitors from 1,457 to 1,157. But attendance increased, from 18,892 in 2003 to 19,461 in 2004.
To attract more attendees, NTP used direct mail to reach a higher number of industry magazine subscribers and increased the number of mail pieces overall. It cut the number of conference sessions associated with the show, but beefed up those that remained with key speakers that drew larger crowds. NTP threw several appreciation nights for different attendee groups and incorporated the show's previously poorly attended awards ceremony into an opening day welcome function with keynote speaker Steve Forbes, president and CEO of Forbes, editor in chief of Forbes Magazine and a one-time presidential candidate.
Still, not everybody was happy. Teardown went so slowly "a lot of us almost missed our plane flights," said Stephanie Pierce, logistics manager for exhibiting firm Caribe Intl. "Before, there was never a problem."
Christian said the slow move-out was a problem, partly because a show with heavy, cumbersome exhibits was moving in and out of what was essentially a new facility for the first time.
Grey Perna, senior vice president of merchandising for Intl. Wholesale Tile, exhibiting at the show for the sixth year, did not notice any serious managerial hitches this year. "The show seemed to go off seamlessly," Perna said. NTP helped his team set up the largest double-boothed exhibit it had ever brought to Coverings, and arranged a meeting room for nearly 40 people.
Still, Perna said, even though he made sales and was pleased overall with the experience, the attendance issue could use a little work. "It seemed like there were fewer retailers. That's who we're after."
