Show Managers, Conference Planners Work Together
By Stephanie Corbin -- Tradeshow Week, 5/7/2007
Attendees at Intl. CES this year had the opportunity to take part in a growing trend and add to their expertise with conferences produced by 13 organizations.
Partnerships with show organizers allowed these organizations to collocate their conference events at CES. They allow attendees to be exposed to programs they might not see otherwise. And they allow the organizers of such a large show, with plenty on their to-do list as it is, to be free from the nuts and bolts of putting together another compelling conference component.
"It just makes a lot of sense all the way around," said Tara Dunion, director of communications with Consumer Electronics Assn., which produces Intl. CES, as well as its own conferences at the show.
The cost to register for the conferences is folded into the different cost levels for attending Intl. CES; the show and partnering conference producer split the revenue.
"They'll have an audience that they can bring to CES, and we have an audience we can bring to their conference," Dunion added.
One of the partnerships – with Digital Hollywood – is in its eighth year.
"It's sort of a two-way street: It's good for them, and it's good for us," said Victor Harwood, president of the New York City-based company.
Digital Hollywood doesn't go looking for collocations, but Harwood said they are a good extension of the brand, as are separate events the company holds each year.
"The way we look at it is, we only want to affiliate with the best brands," he said. So far, that's CES and this year's NXTcomm, the new show for the United States Telecom Assn. and Telecommunications Industry Assn., launching June 18-21 at Chicago's McCormick Place.
Digital Hollywood had 28 sessions at the most recent CES, held Jan. 8-11 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. They were billed on the CES Web site as letting people "gain up-to-the-minute insight on how movies, music, advertising, television and more are merging into a powerful new experience."
The sessions had panelists who sent requests to Digital Hollywood to be included, Harwood said. As with the speakers for all its events, the company evaluated submissions and decided who the speakers were going to be based on the event and the needs of the audience.
"We don't pay speakers, and speakers don't pay us," he added.
The company will offer more than 20 similar sessions at NXTcomm.
Dunion said the partnerships were very successful and are beneficial to the show attendees.
"We'll continue to do it for the foreseeable future," she added.
The National Assn. of Broadcasters also saw the value of partnerships at the recent NAB, held at the LVCC, April 16-19.
"These organizers are able to zero in on very specific niche communities within our overall show universe," said Chris Brown, NAB vice president of conventions and business operations. "And in some cases, they have much stronger content knowledge and stronger relationships with the niche served."
NAB partnered with several organizations this year, which produced about 50 percent of the conferences.
One of those was iHollywood Forum, which ran two events during the show, MoTV: Mobile TV & Video Summit and IPTV World.
"We're bringing new sectors such as wireless and telecom to a broadcast tradeshow," said Zahava Stroud, president of iHollywood Forum.
Brown said, "I think they definitely bring new ideas to the table. ... Often these third parties take a completely different approach than we might, and more often than not, their approach works and represents an idea we can incorporate into other areas of the show. It forces us to think outside the box."
NAB benefits from the partnerships in other ways.
"We bring new attendees to the tradeshows," Stroud said, claiming that about 40 percent of iHollywood Forum's event attendees go to two or more events per year – including some tradeshows they had never considered visiting before.
"On the surface, it would stand to reason that these partnerships would be less lucrative than producing the content in-house," Brown said, "but if the partnership is working, I think just the opposite is true: With superior content, we draw better overall registration, sometimes significantly better, and this is actually a pretty efficient way to do this, as it minimizes the staff resources we must devote. Producing the conferences internally is very resource-intensive."
And for iHollywood Forum, NAB fits with the company's collocation ideas.
"Most of our partners tend to be technology tradeshows," Stroud said. That includes NCTA – The Cable Show, which begins this week at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. Her company will collocate an event, iHollywood Mobile Bootcamp, with the show for the first time.
Collocations allow iHollywood and its partners to increase revenue and expand their databases, she added.
"We share risk and reward, which further solidifies the commitment on both sides," Brown said.
