With Big Shows to Fill

Picture this: You're 30 years old and six months pregnant; it's just months after Sept. 11; the U.S. economy — not to mention tradeshow participation — is in the pits; and you've spent the last three years promoting attendance for a show that, due to circumstances beyond your control, is doomed to draw some 15,000 fewer visitors than the last time it took place.

How do you feel?

Probably the way Sara Truesdale Mooney felt in March 2002, at CONEXPO-CON/AGG in Las Vegas. Mooney, director of promotions-expositions for the Assn. of Equipment Manufacturers, owner and operator of the country's largest tradeshow, was opening her first CONEXPO-CON/AGG since being hired three years earlier.

But rather than letting the ill-fated start discourage her, Mooney and her team of five AEM expo marketing specialists went back to the drawing board. For the past three years, they've worked not only to turn around the 1999–2002 downward slide in attendance, but to push the association's marketing program into the 21st century.

And it looks like they've succeeded. A month before the 2005 show, advance registration was 16 percent over 1999, a record year for the show. Just two weeks before the show's opening, Mooney talked with Tradeshow Week Senior Associate Editor Heidi Genoist about the trials and accomplishments of the three previous years, and the importance of attendance promotion to the future of tradeshows.

Question: How did you get from a bachelor's degree in international relations to a job in exposition promotions?

Answer: I started out in international marketing for housewares products in a small division of Allen-Edmonds Shoe Corp. here in Wisconsin in 1996. I got some international sales experience there, and did a lot of European travel and export shipping.

That was also my first exposure to tradeshows. I was an exhibitor at the Intl. (Home and) Housewares Show, the WSA Show, and Ambiente in Germany.

In 1999, I saw the job opening at what is now AEM, and I thought I'd give it a try. Construction wasn't my industry, but I thought a lot of the principles of marketing applied across industries. I never imagined the amount of work involved in producing a show of this magnitude.

Q: What were you able to apply from your former job?

A: I wore a lot of hats at Allen-Edmonds, and worked on all sorts of different marketing projects: Web sites, catalogs, direct mail. I got a lot of good customer service experience there. That helped me a lot.

Q: But how does it apply to tradeshow attendance promotion?

A: It's a different animal. There are programs that are specific to tradeshows, like ad trade-outs and supporting organization programs. For domestic publications, we trade exhibit space for ad pages, and for international publications we do flights and hotel rooms for ad pages. For supporting organizations connected to our industry, we invite their support, and, in exchange, we pledge them a certain number of benefits, like promotion in our literature and Web site, registration, exhibit space at the show.

Q: Will your responsibilities change when AEM takes over sole ownership and management of CONEXPO-CON/AGG after this show?

A: That remains to be seen. I'm sure there are lots of strategies and plans in the works, but my team is really in the business of making this a successful show — both CONEXPO-CON/AGG and IFPE (Intl. Exposition for Power Transmission), which is collocated with it. We're focusing on that.

Q: Are there plans to re-brand the show?

A: No. I don't think so. The CONEXPO-CON/AGG brand is known around the world. I don't think that would be in our best interest.

Q: It's a strong show in every other way, but attendance dipped from 95,397 in 1999 to 80,054 in 2002. What happened?

A: I attribute it to the 9/11 tragedy and the economic conditions after that. We had some really good momentum going in prior to that. But for 2005, we're seeing record-breaking advance registration numbers — even higher than 1999.

Q: Since the economic downturn, why has attendance been slower to pick up than exhibitor participation at all tradeshows?

A: I think 2001 and 2002 were a real challenge for everyone. People cut the number of buyers they were sending to shows, and they've been slow to increase them again. But a positive residual effect of that has been that companies only sent their high-quality buyers, and they're still attending. Now we're getting both quality and quantity.

Q: Do you think the upswing in attendance will continue?

A: Yes, I think so. I'm very optimistic about it. We always say this, but nothing replaces the face-to-face tradeshow experience. With our show and others that are market leaders, it's the only place someone can go and see under one roof (or one sky) all those products and services and comparison-shop and make deals and solve challenges.

Q: What do you think will be the most successful attendance-promotion tactics going forward?

A: I see a couple things: First, personalization and individualization — speaking to what each person wants from a show. You have to tell them you have the products they want to see, the education sessions that will help them. It will be important to have a handle on your attendance demographics and be able to slice and dice them to do that.

Second, you have to ensure there's a well-rounded show experience, from incredible exhibits, to innovative education, to international business opportunities, to networking. If a show is doing that, it should be successful.

Q: AEM President Dennis Slater credits you with bringing the association's marketing plan into the 21st century. What does he mean by that?

A: Because of the industry we're in, a lot of our attendees are computer-savvy, but some are not into getting something off a Web site or e-mail. Past surveys have always said our print ads are the number one source of information for people, so direct mail isn't going away.

So, to take our plan to the next level for '05, we added to our print campaign with a number of target-market ads focused around testimonials from materials producers. For instance, (they would show) an asphalt contractor talking about what he learned at the show in '02. Prospective attendees can see what their peers get out of the show and why they go. Those ads have had a huge impact.

Q: So, have you abandoned electronic marketing?

A: No, not at all. We also did an interactive CD-ROM for this show for the first time. It has a good video component, because there's no other way to show the size and scope of this event. You go in and select the show you want to learn about, pick your language, and choose from a menu of different items you want to look at. Depending on the category you pick, you can view a fact sheet, see a video, click through to register on our Web site. It's the most complete package we've put together.

Q: What do you do to help exhibitors market to their customers and prospects?

A: CONEXPO has a long history of making a wealth of resources available to exhibitors. For instance, we put the CD-ROM in our exhibitor marketing kit, and we pay for it. For this show we also did a paper version of the kit, and we have an online version that's like a shopping cart, where they can customize promotional materials.

We offer free sticker sheets they can customize with their name and booth number and put on envelopes and literature. We have a four-color postcard with our show info and logo on the front, and they can upload four-color photos of their own products and logos and message on the back. We couldn't do stuff like that five years ago, because digital printing has really evolved.

Q: What has been your favorite promotion this year?

A: We're doing a Las Vegas VIP prize drawing. We partnered with the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority to develop a prize package. They were kind enough to donate some show tickets and restaurant vouchers, and we rounded it out with seminar tickets, VIP lounge passes and free registration for a friend. We drew the 20 winners from our 50,000 advanced registrants.

I got the idea for that from an Intl. Assn. for Exhibition Management session on attendance promotion, where someone was stressing the fact that you have to treat your customers like old friends and show that every one of them is a VIP. We've had a tremendous response to it.

Q: Dennis has been an active leader in the tradeshow industry through IAEM. Do you plan to follow his example?

A: Dennis has been really supportive and encouraged all his staff to obtain our CEM designations, and I'm hoping to get that sewed up this year. I attend the annual meeting, and once I get the designation, I'd like to start sharing our experiences, and maybe helping out with their promotion efforts.

Q: What do you think of IAEM's plans to consolidate the industry's many organizations?

A: Any time you can unite a lot of voices to be a more powerful organization that is heard that much more, it's always a good thing.

Q: With CONEXPO taking place only once every three years, what do you do during off years?

A: There's never really any down time, with three other tradeshows (IFPE, the Intl. Construction & Utility Equipment Exposition and World of Asphalt) to promote. This organization has always had a solid marketing plan that I was able to learn from, but because of CONEXPO's cycle, we're able to build on it and innovate over three years.

Q: What are your goals within the organization?

A: I'm looking to become more well-rounded and learn the other areas of the show. I'm hoping to get some synergies with the registration process, the data we use pre- and post-show, all that relates to promotion and how we can use that data to the fullest.

I try to learn everything I can by listening to my colleagues in sales and operations, but I think I'll always want to work on promotion. If you don't get buyers to the show, the next year you won't have as many exhibitors, so to me it's key.