Will '06 Be the Year of the Supplier?

You know about general service contractors, hotel chains and other suppliers, right? They're the ones that show managers blame when exhibitors complain about the exorbitant cost of getting into a show.

Of course, show managers rarely bother to explain the complex, sometimes convoluted, deals they have with suppliers — or the number of times they, as industry association leaders, ask suppliers to sponsor events and take the lead on charitable giving.

As it turns out, I don't have to pity the poor suppliers. They can take care of themselves.

And they are. A Starwood Hotels executive has called a meeting next month and invited a number of suppliers and industry association representatives. The top agenda item appears to be the donations that associations like the Professional Convention Management Assn. and Meeting Professionals Intl. typically request, and get, from suppliers for their foundations. The money is used for everything from producing meetings, to providing education, to old-fashioned charity.

But is it possible that this is just the tip of an iceberg? That suppliers are about to say, "We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore?"

I've been to my share of industry meetings. Close to the top of everybody's list of issues to discuss, both officially and informally, is criticism of service contractors. The irony is that these discussions often take place during an opulent — and expensive — meal provided by the very same companies being raked over the coals.

About a year ago, after it was clear that the Society of Independent Show Organizers and the Intl. Assn. for Exhibition Management would not be merging after all, both Don Freeman of Freeman and Paul Dykstra, then president of GES, wondered to a Tradeshow Week editor why nobody ever bothered to ask their opinion about the whole thing, noting that — whatever happened — they would still probably be asked to finance a large share of the activities that take place.

The rationale for all this donating and sponsoring is simply that, in this particular industry at this particular time, this is the cost of doing business. If one supplier does it, another feels it has to as well.

And there's probably not a good reason for us to start worrying that we'll be dining on hot dogs and tap water at the next association meeting. After all, the only thing that's happened so far is that a meeting has been called — and we're not even completely sure who's going or what they'll be talking about.

Everyone involved is too invested in the current way to doing business to rock the boat.

But, as we all know, business is picking up. Could it be that suppliers are finding themselves in a position where they do not have to beg and plead for every scrap of work out there?

We often talk about who is in the driver's seat in the industry. Is it the attendee? The exhibitor? Is it ever really the show manager?

A year from now, could we actually find ourselves saying that 2006 was the Year of the Supplier?

To readers who label themselves conservative Republicans, promise me that you'll keep reading beyond the next sentence:

I never thought the day would come when I would agree with George W. Bush, but ... the bandwagon to stop Dubai Ports World from running port operations in East Coast U.S. cities is headed in the wrong direction — and in the long run it can't be good for the tradeshow industry and all its customers who want to do business in more than one country.

As I write this, the company has buckled under immense pressure and agreed to at least appear as if it is not involved in U.S. port operations. The chances are there will be some number of illusory firewalls that will give Americans the impression that they are safer than they were when the port operations were owned by another foreign company, one based in the United Kingdom rather than Dubai.

At the same time, a message is being delivered that the American public somehow believes it does not need to participate in the larger global economy. Previously, when American show managers had to deal with the problem of getting visas for foreign exhibitors and attendees, they could say the American government was at fault. Now, unfortunately, the news is out that it's not just the government; it's Americans themselves.

At the heart of the tradeshow industry is the simple desire of buyers and sellers to meet to do business. As people in this industry know better than most, today that means buyers and sellers all over the world. Except, for the time being, it appears, in the United States.