Job Market: Managers Make Their Moves

By Rachelle Crum -- Tradeshow Week, 4/11/2005

As economic conditions improve and the industry picks up steam, many show management executives are testing the job market — and they say the temperature is more than lukewarm.

"There's definitely almost twice the opportunities there were two years ago," said Vicki Hawarden, who was recently hired as director of education and conferences for the Natl. Recreation and Park Assn., a position that was listed on both the Professional Convention Management Assn. and American Society of Assn. Executives online job boards.

And now individuals who had "hunkered down" and "kept their jobs are more willing to take a risk," added Hawarden, who spent five years with the American Assn. of Blood Banks, most recently as its director of meetings and programs, managing the AABB Annual Meeting & TXPO, a 2004 Tradeshow Week Fastest 50 show.

In the past six months, several of Hawarden's industry peers have also expressed interest in reviewing their employment prospects, she said. "There are people saying, 'I kind of feel that I want to look around and see what's out there.'"

A fresh challenge and additional responsibilities were certainly appealing after a period of uncertainty in the industry, she said. And just when Hawarden was ready, NRPA delivered the opportunity she wanted: supervising a larger staff, managing a bigger show and directly reporting to the group's CEO. "I've taken a lot of steps forward," Hawarden said.

In her new position, Hawarden has replaced Sherry Romello, who moved on to the Natl. Assn. of Convenience Stores as its director of meetings.

Both Brian Randall and Christina Condos said they found the revived job market refreshing. And Randall's recent Advanstar Communications exit created Condos' new opportunity — a return to a former employer.

"It was a lucky break for me," said Condos, who recently left her show director position at CMP Media when she was recruited by Advanstar to fill Randall's shoes. Condos is now group show director for the company's information technology and content management events. She also manages a show, AIIM - The Enterprise Content Management Exposition & Conference, that she had worked on earlier in her career (before its collocation with ON DEMAND Digital Printing & Publishing Conference & Exposition).

Condos said the job market was relatively bleak for the last few years. But lately, she said, "There seems to be a lot more movement."

Randall, who recently replaced H. Stephen Phillips (who left the industry) at Diversified Business Communications as vice president of ethnic foods, said the recent job changes are healthy for both the individuals and the respective industry organizations. "It's important to keep yourself fresh," he said.

And with five years of experience as general manager of the Advanstar Technology Group under his belt, molding AIIM ON DEMAND, as the collocation has been rebranded, into a more competitive product and moving it from New York to Philadelphia, he was ready for a new challenge.

"I really felt after five years that I had given so much blood, sweat and tears into the event," Randall said. Getting a new opportunity is "a breath of fresh air."

Plus, the opportunity to live in Portland, Maine — a city he "loves" — and to indulge his passion for food by running the five Expo Comida Latina and All Asia Food Expo shows was too good to pass up, he said. "It was a really great transition."

Like Condos, many show managers are looking ahead to their next career moves, and finding themselves glancing back.

"A lot of people are leaving (companies) and coming back," she said. Of course, to do so, she added, "You have to make sure that you don't burn any bridges."

So many former Reed Exhibitions staff members have returned to the firm that it has established the Boomerang Award, which is presented to up to five employees each year.

But even though some job boards (like the Intl. Assn. for Exhibition Management online career center) have an abundance of listings, finding choice opportunities can take a little footwork.

Randall ran into Joann Leonard, Diversified's operations director (and his former Convention Management Group colleague), at last year's Society of Independent Show Organizers Executive Conference. Later, he received a personal e-mail about the opening he ended up filling. Although he wasn't looking for a new job at that time, Randall said he was "more receptive" to considering the opportunity because of his already well-established relationship with Leonard.

"Personal relationships are always important," Randall said.

Word of mouth has proven effective for VNU Expositions, which also advertises its openings on industry job boards. However, said Mary Kay Sustek, COO of the expositions unit, "It's hard to find people through regular advertisements."

But word of mouth doesn't always work for Cygnus Expositions. President Jeff Price said the opportunity to work for a growing company is a big draw. But some would-be hires are less excited about relocating to the frostbitten Midwest. "I have a little bit of a hard time attracting them to Minnesota," Price said.

Galen Poss, president of Hanley Wood Exhibitions, said his company has been in hiring mode for the past five years, although whenever possible it tries to promote from within its ranks. Several years ago, when VNU Expositions closed its office in Dallas, Hanley Wood was able to snap up several seasoned tradeshow professionals who didn't want to relocate from that Texas city, where Hanley Wood is also based.

Now that a number of expanding firms have a variety of newly created positions to fill, some say that there may not be enough qualified professionals within the industry for them all.

To solve that problem, companies like Reed often consider candidates from among their customers, the exhibitors.

Dennis MacDonald, senior vice president for Reed, said the exhibitor-turned-show manager model is one that Reed always considers for its openings. He himself was once an exhibitor at a Reed show, the Intl. Security Conference. However, he said, "they need to be good generalists" to operate in the show management capacity.

Randall believes his time as an exhibit manager for a staffing resource software company made him a better show manager. "It helped me when I came back to really empathize with my exhibitors," he said. "(Now I) help facilitate the handshake for them."