Tradeshow Teams: Associations Do More With Less

By Heidi Genoist -- Tradeshow Week, 8/21/2006

How many people does it take to produce a major exhibition? The answer depends, for one thing, on whether it's produced by a nonprofit or a for-profit organization.

Take, for instance, the near-1.2 million net square foot Intl. Manufacturing Technology Show, put on every other September at Chicago's McCormick Place by the Assn. for Manufacturing Technology.

Peter Eelman, AMT's vice president of exhibitions, says that, counting himself, seven full-time and one part-time staffers manage the show, which in 2004 drew 86,232 total attendees, including those from 1,819 exhibiting firms, putting it at No. 3 on the 2005 Tradeshow Week 200.

In contrast, there are more than 60 Advanstar Communications employees dedicated to producing MAGIC Marketplace, the largest for-profit-owned and -operated show in the country.

Right away the comparison gets complicated.

For one thing, MAGIC is semiannual. Its August and February editions at the Las Vegas Convention Center — Nos. 7 and 10 on the most recent TSW 200, respectively — each fill 900,000 to 950,000 net sq. ft., and draw nearly 100,000 attendees, including those from the 3,000 or so exhibiting companies.

In other words, MAGIC takes place four times for each staging of IMTS.

On the other hand, as Eelman noted, the AMT staff has a few things to do during its off-IMTS time. The association also produces four foreign shows, which he estimates occupy about 20 percent of the dedicated show management staff's time.

It's not the number of shows, it seems, but who's behind them that determines, to a large extent, how show management teams are structured.

Advanstar Communications is a $289 million, publicly held company with about 1,000 employees who produce 58 publications and 87 events.

AMT is a 350-member, nonprofit professional association founded more than 100 years ago by machine tool workers in New York City. It has 72 employees in offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, China, as well as Monterey, Mexico.

Advanstar's corporate infrastructure handles all the creative, IT, accounting, public relations and other services that support MAGIC, although the company does contract outside agencies for some marketing and travel services.

IMTS' show team also uses internal staff for creative, IT, accounting and so on, and contracts with an outside ad agency for some help.

So, what's the difference between for-profit and association management? Chuck Schwartz should know. He's chairman of ConvExx, which produces the Specialty Equipment Market Assn.'s SEMA Show through an unusually close partnership between a nonprofit and its contracted show manager.

"There's a lot more to producing a show than operations," Schwartz pointed out. "The market intelligence, the research, everything that needs to be done behind the scenes — they have access to that through an association."

AMT's Web site lists 18 employee contacts on its pages for manufacturing research and development, industry standards and regulations, and trends and statistics. The association also has divisions dedicated to business development and management.

Chris McCabe, recently hired by Advanstar as vice president and general manager of MAGIC Marketplace, said he thought there wasn't much difference between the way an association and a for-profit firm run an event. Each one was simply "trying to drive an experience for the customer," he said.

A factor that has hampered the growth of many association shows is the nonprofit management structure, with its sometimes cumbersome board of directors.

Eelman said he reports to AMT's president and, as a vice president, gives regular updates to the board on his division's activities. Although he doesn't "do anything major without consulting the board," he said it's an "open and healthy set-up" that gives him a lot of autonomy, relying mainly on the guidance of a show advisory committee, made up of IMTS exhibitors and AMT members.

McCabe reports to Laura McConnell, executive vice president of Advanstar's fashion group. His staff works on six-month cycles, starting the planning for each show a couple weeks after finishing the previous one. Although he doesn't have an advisory committee at the moment, he says, "That has always appealed to me. It's something I want to do going forward."