Clear Winner

For years the glass industry has said that one tradeshow was all it needed. Yet companies continued to feel they had to exhibit at both GlassBuild America: The Glass, Window & Door Expo and InterGlassMetal/FenestrationWorld – until now.

The resistance became stronger until finally Doug Dame, president of Dame Associates, which manages the biennial InterGlass, found it hard to ignore. There will not be an InterGlass event in 2007.

"You hope the weaker shows get weeded out, but if both shows are going, you feel compelled to be there," said Joe Landsverk, marketing director of Wood's Powr-Grip, a GlassBuild and InterGlass exhibitor. "But it's harder for us to squeeze money to do more shows."

Susan Jacob, director of industry events for the Natl. Glass Assn., which manages GlassBuild, agreed that companies will do whatever it takes to make sure they're where they believe their customers are going to be.

Jacob also acknowledged that "with two shows, both suffer. Neither can reach its potential if they're directly competing with each other. People are splitting their time and marketing dollars."

Those dollars are stretched even further when the two industry shows take place only weeks apart. Previously held in the spring, GlassBuild moved its show to the fall last year in Atlanta, scheduling it closer to InterGlass in Boston.

That's when Dame knew the end was near. Launched in 1977 and ranked on the Tradeshow Week 200 in years past, last year's edition of InterGlass spanned about 30,000 net square feet and attracted fewer than 1,000 attendees, Dame said.

"It's a different world," he said. "Acquisitions and mergers are gobbling up companies, so five or six former exhibitors are now one company."

As companies grew, Dame lost his personal relationships.

"The people I dealt with in the industry are either retired or deceased," he said.

While InterGlass dwindled, GlassBuild flourished. The 2006 show in Las Vegas spanned 173,250 net sq. ft. with 489 companies and 10,166 attendees (including exhibit personnel). Jacob said that over the past five years several factors have influenced the show's success, including the new time slot.

Industry sponsorships have also increased. Formerly sponsored exclusively by the Natl. Glass Assn., four more industry associations have jumped on board.

The show also offers its exhibitors unlimited free guest passes for attendees.

"We bend over backward for our customers," Jacob said.

So why didn't Dame, feeling the competition's breath on his neck, turn around and offer the same types of deals? He did.

"Our booth prices are less," he said. Plus, Dame included carpet and lead retrieval in the $16 standard and $17 premium per-square-foot cost of a booth. He doesn't charge an extra fee for sponsorships either.

"If a company wants to sponsor lanyards, they just have to pay for the lanyards," he said. "These little things add up."

But perhaps the nail in the coffin for InterGlass was the deal the Natl. Glass Assn. made with 26 of its exhibitors.

In exchange for exhibiting exclusively at GlassBuild for three years (2005-2007), the exhibitors were given price breaks, as well as additional marketing opportunities, such as being mentioned as exclusive on the floorplan, Jacob said.

"They were marked so customers knew that GlassBuild is the only place you'll be able to see them," Jacob said.

She said the association targeted companies who were exhibiting at both GlassBuild and InterGlass at that time.

Coincidentally, Dame said, all of his major exhibitors pulled out of the 2005 show the same week.

Bernard Micalizzi, manager of AGM Glass Machinery, which had a 50'x60' booth at the 2006 GlassBuild, said he was not approached by the NGA to be an exclusive exhibitor. Not that he would have signed the contract anyway.

"I would not have felt good about it," Micalizzi said. "I always like to have options and do the tradeshows that I choose."

But with only one industry show left, he may not have another option. Or does he?

InterGlass was not the only show that needed to make adjustments after GlassBuild moved to the fall. While the Americas Glass Showcase is nowhere near the size of GlassBuild, it may only be a matter of time before the regional show is clambering on its heels. Formerly called Glass Expo West, the event was also held in the fall but moved to the spring last year (in Las Vegas) to avoid competing with GlassBuild. This was not an easy matter.

"Hotel rates are better in the spring, because it's off-season," said Nancy Bates, an administrative assistant for the Americas Glass Assn.

Rather than giving up, however, this show is fighting back. Besides changing the name of the show, the sponsoring organization, the California Glass Assn., is now the Americas Glass Assn.

"We wanted to broaden our membership base and become more of an international association," Bates said. The organization now represents companies from Canada, Taiwan and China to name a few.

Another way the association found to broaden its membership was by joining forces with the Independent Glass Assn. The two groups, which now represent architectural and automotive glass, will sponsor their first show together next year in Las Vegas. The IGA previously had its own show in March.

"It could very well be that they (AGA) are the next IGM venue," Landsverk said.

But Dame isn't quite ready to close the door on InterGlass yet.

"I'll never say never," he said. "The brand is registered and still exists."