Hardware, Gourmet Grow Hand-in-Hand

Organizers Reed and GLM say collocation of the shows will continue

By Heidi Genoist -- Tradeshow Week, 5/30/2005

Las Vegas—The harmony of humming kitchen appliances with pounding power tools might have gone unnoticed to some at the Natl. Hardware Show and Las Vegas Gourmet Housewares Show here May 17–19, but organizers from Reed Exhibitions and George Little Management said it was a sweet symphony.

Although there are a few wrinkles to iron out, Reed and GLM pronounced the union a success that they plan to continue for the foreseeable future.

The biggest change next year will be to move the entire event under one roof at the Las Vegas Convention Center May 9–11. This year it was split between the Sands Expo & Convention Center and the LVCC.

Dennis MacDonald, Reed Exhibitions senior vice president, said the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority was accommodating in finding LVCC dates during May, one of its busiest months.

The earlier date puts the two shows a little closer to the March 10–12, 2006, Intl. Home & Housewares Show, one of their closest competitors and a reason for Gourmet's move to Las Vegas and the collocation with the Hardware Show.

IHHS in 2005 moved to an early-spring timeframe (putting it ahead of Gourmet, then in San Francisco) and added a Gourmet Home & Food District. The result was good for IHHS, which grew from 1,778 exhibitors filling 786,000 net square feet in 2003 to 2,177 filling 821,000 net sq. ft. in 2004, coming in 11th on the Tradeshow Week 200.

But it was disastrous for Gourmet, which during the same period fell from 661 exhibitors and 212,851 net sq. ft. to 459 exhibitors and 116,670 net sq. ft.

The collocation with the Hardware Show and the move to Las Vegas seem to have halted the downward slide, with Gourmet this year pulling 506 exhibitors occupying 117,000 net sq. ft.

Coincidentally, this year's IHHS slipped to 797,000 net sq. ft. (although it did have a higher number of exhibiting firms).

"We've created a marketplace that has relevance six weeks after Housewares, which was daunting," said Dorothy Belshaw, GLM associate partner. "We're maintaining our focus, while creating a new marketplace at a time when retail is consolidating."

Next year, said Rob Cappiello, Reed industry vice president and show manager, the combined shows' tagline will be "If it's at home, it's at the show."

He added that the Hardware Show will not become a housewares show, but "there are some areas of that (sector) that are good for us ... You can buy high-end kitchen appliances at hardware stores."

According to Reed, this year's Hardware Show featured 3,200 exhibitors spanning 681,191 net sq. ft., a marked improvement over its 2,303 exhibitors and 489,023 net sq. ft. last year, when it was No. 33 on the TSW 200.

At press time, neither management company had preliminary attendance numbers available. Still, they seemed elated by the result of the combination.

"It's our first collocation with Reed Exhibitions, and so far, it's going really well," said Alan Steel, GLM executive vice president. "These are two industries which have some overlap, and the energy here is quite refreshing to us. When you relocate, you're always nervous about how it's going to go, but judging from the turnout so far, this has been a good move."

Bringing together two different companies — the privately held GLM and public Reed — with two different cultures, "we expected some hiccups. But there have been very few," Cappiello said.

Belshaw added that "it could have been a nightmare. But we've both been doing this for so long, we knew what to do." The two firms assigned managers, who met monthly, to each segment of the show. The two sides used the same contractors for all major services, and share shuttles, security and signage.

MacDonald said the Hardware Show is committed to Las Vegas "until the market tells us it's time to go."

"We're now looking more aggressively at Las Vegas," Steel said. "This has not been a good location in the past for the industries we've been in. But you'll probably be seeing more, rather than less, of us."

The move to the city was a tough pill to swallow for some Gourmet exhibitors, like Steven Rafoth, president of high-end cookware maker Enclume, who said, "I hate this place."

Down the aisle, Kitchen Art Sales Manager Greg Stanhope agreed it wasn't his first choice in location, but "the traffic is great — so much better than last year."

GLM took pains to educate Gourmet participants on the growth Las Vegas' food industry has undergone since the show last took place there 10 years ago. They included Zagat's local restaurant guide in the pre-show directory, and the show's Culinary Center featured a lineup of some of the city's highest-rated chefs.

"We wanted to create a sense of ease for our customers, who are accustomed to dining and cooking well," said Susan Corwin, GLM vice president and show manager.

Gourmet exhibitors weren't the only ones who missed their former home.

Elizabeth Marquardt, vice president of product marketing for Fiskars, one of the largest exhibitors in Hardware's Lawn & Garden World, said the media exposure — one of the company's main reasons for exhibiting and metrics for measuring its success — was much better in Chicago.

There, Marquardt said, exhibitors could get attention from television news programs like "Good Morning America" and the "Today" show. "That kind of coverage alone makes our investment worthwhile," she said.

She added the company will not decide whether to exhibit again until after determining the ROI of this show.

Among the exhibitors that got the best press at the show was Rockwell's new line of power tools Worx, which launched at Hardware. Jeff Dezen, who handled the company's public relations at the show, said the "quality of media attention was good, but the depth was less than expected."

Worx was filmed by crews for cable channels Home and Garden Television and Home Channel News, and won an editor's choice award for innovative design from Popular Mechanics. "For our brands, it was the perfect way to come out of the gate with class," Dezen said.

He blamed the local news affiliates' lack of interest in the show on the fact that they see so many large tradeshows week in and week out.

Despite the occasional exhibitor complaint, most exhibitors at both shows found the traffic and energy to be high.

And Reed lured back key supporters, who left the show several years ago. Although it didn't exhibit, Black & Decker held press and VIP meetings at the LVCC throughout the show, and Ace Hardware hosted open-buying meetings, giving prospective vendors 15 minutes each to pitch their new products to merchandising managers.

As for attendees, they were wowed by the growth of the shows, particularly in Hardware's Lawn & Garden World.

"This is by far our biggest show now in North America," said Anthony Vargas of the Natl. Gardening Assn. "What we've seen in two days, we couldn't have seen in two years before."