Tradeshow Revenues on the Rise

In another indication that the industry is recovering, three business-to-business media companies reported improvement in their tradeshow revenue.

Advanstar Communications generated $45.9 million in tradeshow revenue, up 15 percent from the $39.9 million reported in the third quarter of last year. The growth was largely fueled by a 12-percent increase in revenue and square footage at the August MAGIC Marketplace in Las Vegas.

Advanstar said the 2004 show drew more than 95,000 attendees and 3,300 exhibitors to a 930,000 net square foot showfloor. That compares with the 2,858 exhibitors and 84,000 attendees who reportedly turned out for the 828,345 net sq. ft. show in August 2003, when it ranked No. 7 on the 2004 Tradeshow Week 200.

"Our tradeshow and conference segment exceeded our expectations in the quarter," Advanstar CEO Joe Loggia told analysts during the company's conference call. "We had a terrific MAGIC event."

Total revenue for Advanstar was up by about $26 million in the quarter and by about $71 million year to date. The company narrowed its net loss to $9.8 million in the third quarter, about half the year-ago level.

Now that the pharmaceutical magazines that came with the Thomson Healthcare acquisition are part of the mix, publications produced about $5 million more quarterly revenue than tradeshows for Advanstar.

CFO Dave Montgomery said the showfloor for the August Central Veterinary Conference, part of the Thomson Healthcare acquisition, is approaching 50,000 net sq. ft. Ten pharmaceutical conferences, part of the Institute for Validation Technology acquisition, were held in the third quarter. Companywide, Advanstar's technology shows remain weak, Montgomery told analysts.

Jupitermedia generated $3 million in revenue from the four events held in the third quarter, up from $2.1 million in the third quarter of 2003. The events, including the Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo and the itSMF USA Conference & Expo, produced $957,000 in net income.

Jupitermedia plans to hold six trade-shows in the fourth quarter. But the company is changing its previous approach of launching myriad new tradeshows in areas of emerging technology.

CEO Alan Meckler said he plans to focus on the Search Engine Strategies events in 2005. Jupitermedia next year will add search events in Brazil, China and India to the three held in the United States and a fourth in Sweden.

"If we only ran Search Engine Strategies, any stockholder would be happy," Meckler told analysts. "We don't need any other events. We are staying away from creating any new events, other than developing the Search Engine Strategies shows."

Primedia, meanwhile, reported $48.6 million in revenue from its business information unit, up about 3 percent from third quarter 2003. This was the second consecutive quarter of growth for the unit, which produces most of the company's tradeshows, after 12 straight quarters of decline.

Some of the additional revenue was chalked up to an increase in the number of events held in the quarter. In particular, company officials said they were proud of the addition of The Entertainment Technology Show to the annual Lighting Dimensions Intl.