Food Show Future Shaken and Stirred

Breaking up was hard — no, impossible — for the Food Marketing Institute and the United Fresh Produce Assn. to do.

That's why the two food associations will stick together in Las Vegas in 2008, and not in Chicago with three other groups they will collocate with, for perhaps the last time in May, as the Supermarket Industry Convention & Educational Exposition.

On Dec. 20, FMI announced that it would present the FMI Show plus Marketechnics at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino May 5–7, 2008. A day later, the United Fresh Produce Assn. said it would collocate its United Produce Expo & Conference with FMI's 2008 Las Vegas show.

Joining United Produce Expo and the FMI Show — one last time at McCormick Place May 6–8 — will be the Spring/Midwest Intl. Fancy Food & Confection Show, All Things Organic Conference & Trade Show and the U.S. Food Export Showcase. Just hours before the opening of the 2006 show, FMI told its four partners it would likely be moving to a biennial format starting in 2008 and rotate from city to city, leaving the status of the rest of the collocated shows up in the air.

Then last June, FMI announced it would hold an educational forum at an undecided location in 2008 and its next tradeshow in Dallas in 2009. At the time, FMI Senior Vice President Brian Tully told Tradeshow Week that, while no decisions had been made yet about the 2008 forum, he was "looking at Las Vegas."

At the time, Tully also said he was in discussions with the other four organizations about moving with FMI to Dallas in 2009, but "we haven't finalized anything yet. We would like to maintain the Power of Five," as the collocation of food shows has come to be called.

Also last year, Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau President Tim Roby said he too was in active negotiations with the four other collocators about remaining together — in his city.

"And from all indications, it looks as if they will remain in Chicago, regardless of what FMI decides," Roby told TSW last May.

Natl. Assn. of State Departments of Agriculture Executive Vice President Rick Kirchhoff confirmed that there had been such discussions. The NASDA owns the U.S. Food Export Showcase.

"We had been talking about whether we might continue the show in Chicago, and possibly open it up to additional partners," Kirchhoff said.

In the meantime, FMI changed course once again. Instead of having what would be the next edition of a biennial show in Dallas in 2009, it will be in Las Vegas in 2008. There will still be a Dallas event in 2009, but it will be an educational forum, not a full-scale tradeshow.

"It was a surprise to us to hear that FMI would be doing a 2008 show," Kirchhoff said.

He also said that, because FMI and United's announcements about the 2008 show came just days before the Christmas holiday, he had not had time to talk about the developments with either manager of the other shows in the collocation, nor his own exhibitors or association members.

Still, he admitted a future U.S. Food Export Showcase in Las Vegas, rather than Chicago, was something he and his colleagues at NASDA would have to think long and hard about.

"Chicago has been a good location for us and our exhibitors," Kirchhoff said. On the other hand, "Las Vegas presents a number of challenges for us."

Amy Philpott, vice president of marketing and industry relations for the United Fresh Produce Assn., said her organization made the decision to remain with FMI in 2008 because "we have a very good working relation with FMI in food safety and tradeshows. The retail community, which FMI is a part of, is very important to our industry. This way we touch the entire retail produce team, buyers and senior-level managers."

Neither FMI's Tully nor representatives of Diversified Business Communications, which produces All Things Organic, or the Natl. Assn. for the Specialty Food Trade, which produces the Spring/Midwest Intl. Fancy Food & Confection Show, could be reached for comment by press time.

Kirchhoff said, "I presume after the first of the year, we'll all get in touch with each other. I know we haven't made any decisions at this point about what we'll do."

The 2005 collocation was No. 40 on the most recent TSW 200 with 441,000 net square feet, 2,320 exhibiting companies and 18,690 attendees.