Shows Survive Relocation From New Orleans
By Rachelle Crum -- Tradeshow Week, 4/24/2006
It's a show manager's nightmare. Seven months before your annual show takes place, a natural disaster wreaks havoc on the host city, causing you to move someplace where it may weaken or thrive.
Two recently completed Tradeshow Week 200 shows — the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting and NCTA — The Natl. Show — relocated from New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina. One delivered more attendees and exhibitors, and the other lost attendees but drew more exhibiting firms.
AAOS (No. 102 on the TSW 200 list) attracted nearly 2,000 more attendees to its show in Chicago March 22–26.
On the other hand, the Natl. Cable & Telecommunications Assn. show (No. 147), lost nearly 1,500 attendees at its April 9–11 show in Atlanta. However, NCTA representatives said, the show was still an overall success.
It was surprisingly easy to relocate the AAOS show to Chicago, said CEO Karen Hackett, because the group is headquartered in nearby Rosemont, allowing staff members to make multiple trips to McCormick.
Although the show "is not a small meeting that you could move on a dime," Hackett said they "were able to pick it up and drop it in Chicago."
However, there were some challenges to moving the show from its March 8–12 New Orleans dates, and to a city it hadn't been in for 36 years.
Hackett credited strong decisions and a hardworking staff for "a great response to our meeting. Our physician numbers were higher."
The AAOS meeting attracted 29,000 attendees to a 271,610 square foot showfloor with about 515 exhibiting companies. Last year in Washington, D.C., the show attracted 27,162 attendees to a 254,600 sq. ft. floor with 458 companies.
Deborah Sexton, president and CEO of Professional Convention Management Assn., said she was impressed with the show's success. "If you have to redo a meeting, it's a whole lot easier to do it in your own backyard," she said.
The AAOS show will take place from 2007 to 2010 in San Diego, San Francisco, Las Vegas and New Orleans, in that order.
The Natl. Show didn't have as much luck with attendees as the AAOS event. Still, its exhibiting companies helped grow the show.
The show at the Georgia World Congress Center attracted 15,500 total attendees to a 195,000 sq. ft. showfloor with approximately 360 companies. At San Francisco's Moscone Center in 2005, it drew 16,957 attendees to a 190,500 sq. ft. showfloor with 340 companies.
Additionally, the 2006 show was moved up several weeks from its former New Orleans dates of May 21–23.
Although NCTA spokesman Brian Dietz said pre-registration was on track with last year, the show had lower walk-in registrants.
"Considering the relocation and the short period of time to plan for Atlanta, plus the fact that the show dates were moved up by a month, the show did very well in Atlanta," he said. "Obviously, it required a lot of work in a short period of time."
Dietz added that the 2005 show was popular because it was the first time in years that it had been held on the West Coast.
The show, which last took place in Atlanta in 1998, will rotate to Las Vegas in 2007 and New Orleans in 2008 "to help be a positive part of the rebuilding process," Dietz said.
And, although the AAOS show didn't occur in New Orleans, it still benefited the city.
AAOS, with the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau, arranged to donate $10 for every room night to a fund to help New Orleans hospitality workers. The donation tally was about $700,000, according to Hackett.
Arranging this charitable effort, Hackett said, "really touched home."
The AAOS during its annual event always builds a playground in its host city.
