Getting to the Show

Organizers of the World Ag Expo had been trying to boost their international attendance, so they were excited about the prospect of an Iraqi delegation visiting their tradeshow next week.

But even with help from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Iraqi American Chamber of Commerce & Industry, getting the contingent of businesspeople and public officials into the country was easier said than done.

Initially, World Ag Expo organizers expected 35 delegates. Two were former officials from the Kurdistan regional government's ministry of agriculture, two hailed from the Baghdad-based IACCI and a fifth represented the commercial section of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

In the end, the group was whittled down to half that number, largely due to difficulties in obtaining visas. "Even with the handholding of the DOC, it was still very difficult," said Erin Machado, international buyer coordinator for the Feb. 14–16 show.

According to a recent presentation by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the visa situation should have vastly improved.

The federal officials said wait times for visas should be shorter now that American embassies and consulates have established procedures to expedite business visa processing. The embassies and consulates are also working with local American chambers of commerce in more than 100 countries to expedite visa processing for bona-fide business travelers.

Rice said 97 percent of approved travelers receive their visas "in a day or two, and we have dramatically decreased the wait time for the rest." As an example, Rice said a Russian scientist two years ago would have waited 75 days or longer for his visa application to be screened and reviewed. Now, she said, the process would take two weeks.

The federal government is planning a variety of efforts to further improve the situation. The departments of State and Homeland Security said they would form an advisory board to gather feedback from the travel, business and academic communities. Pilot programs are planned to make airports more welcoming, to take visa application and processing online, and to experiment with videoconferencing for interviewing visa applicants.

In addition, the Department of State said the transition to machine-readable passports containing biometric and biographical information would be complete by the end of this year, when only machine-readable passports will start being issued. Later this year, the department will also begin issuing biometric passport cards to border-community residents who make frequent crossings.

Chertoff reported that the US-VISIT program, which requires foreign visitors to register upon arriving in the United States, in 2004 and 2005 screened 45 million people with prior or suspected criminal or immigration violations. The department stressed that the screenings were accomplished without adding to travelers' wait times.

The federal government has also established a "terrorist screening center" and a "human smuggling and trafficking center" to screen violators from the general population of travelers.

Despite the federal efforts, show organizers said international attendees were still experiencing long wait times for visa interviews. "The time to wait for an interview date is still pretty long," said Petra Kaiser, manager of international promotion for CONEXPO/CON-AGG. "There's been some improvement, but we're still experiencing problems."

The Ag Expo's Machado agrees. "It's still an issue. We write invitations. We follow up with letters to consular officials. We really try to go out of our way to show the requests are legitimate. But I think in many cases, their hands are tied."

Still, Machado is undeterred. She has met with high-level officials in the State and Commerce departments, and managed to boost international attendance at the agricultural expo by 15 to 20 percent per year. The expo, held at the Intl. Agri-Center, annually draws about 100,000 attendees.

"We feel like we're making a good effort on behalf of the tradeshow industry to get the word out. It's a fairly young show, but I feel confident we can hit 1,500 (international visitors)," she said.

The construction-industry associations that sponsor the triennial CONEXPO/CON-AGG — slated to return to the Las Vegas Convention Center March 11–15, 2008 — have succeeded in boosting international attendance, largely through their own efforts.

Kaiser said the 2005 show managed to help secure visa approvals for more buyers from China. "We actually had our Beijing office work very closely with the consulates in China. We were a lot more proactive about introducing ourselves and following up," she said.

International attendance reached 24,000, or 17 percent of total attendance, in 2005. That was up from 2002, when international buyers comprised 14.3 percent of total attendees, and 1999, when 15.7 percent of attendees came from outside the United States.

"We had to be very hands-on," cautioned Kaiser, who works on international attendance issues full-time with the help of a recently added assistant. She added that India, Russia and some South American countries, however, continue to pose problems.