GlassBuild Is No 'Clear Winner'
Michael Hart -- Tradeshow Week, 1/22/2007
Dear Editor:
Re: "Clear Winner" (Nov. 27, 2006)
As a member of the show management team for GlassBuild America: The Glass, Window & Door Expo, I am writing to clarify your article, which suggests there are no shows that compete for our exhibitors' marketing dollars.
GlassBuild America represents a very broad base of attendees and exhibitors who are involved in many facets of the building, remodeling, hardware, architectural, specifications, door and window fabrication industries. Glass is a segment of all of these, and our industry is by no means limited by seeing products and services at only one venue each year.
Our average exhibitor is involved in three to four tradeshows per year, varying their product display to the appropriate audience. The National Glass Assn. and our industry partners are constantly monitoring and assessing our customers' participation in no less than 15 related events, where our members, exhibitors and buyers are spending their valuable time and money. We also promote our products and services at these events, ranging from education and training, standards and specifications, certification, events and our industry's leading publications.
GlassBuild America may be unique in that we attract those who need to see and display a variety of glass, window and door-related products and services in one place, but the notion that we do not have competition to "keep us on our toes" would be wishful thinking for any organization or show management group. Ultimately that concept, in our eyes, has never and will never exist.
Our staff, partners and vendors have worked diligently for many years to answer our industry's call for one broad-based tradeshow that encompasses the wide variety of products and services our participants represent, and we continue to recognize that we must maintain the standard of service and strategies that have brought us to the position we are in today.
So, while Tradeshow Week has deemed GlassBuild America a "Clear Winner," it is, in our view, clearly only one leg of the race.
Susan E. Jacob, Director, industry events, Natl. Glass Assn., McLean, Va.
Letters to the editor of Tradeshow Week are always welcome. Please send them to Editor in Chief Michael Hart (by mail) Tradeshow Week, 5700 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 120, Los Angeles, Calif. 90036-5804; (by e-mail) hartm@reedbusiness.com ; or (by fax) (323) 965-5306.
