About That Exhibitor Manual ...

The impact of the most recent Exhibition and Convention Executives Forum (ECEF) held May 10 at the Washington (D.C.) Convention Center was — to me — crystallized in a single session.

A panel discussion called on tradeshow customers to talk about the industry from their points of view. This year, those customers were not exhibit managers for companies that command vast budgets. Instead, they were the owners of companies with less than $1 million in annual revenue.

As instant polling of the crowd indicated, these two (Frank Amoruso of Tower Care Technology and Monica Ash of EAT IT!) are perhaps the heart and soul of the tradeshow industry. Of the 150-plus show managers in the room, 51 percent said companies that buy fewer than 200 net square feet of exhibit space represent somewhere between 25 and 50 percent of their customer base. Another 24 percent said the smaller exhibitor takes up 50 to 75 percent of their showfloors.

Unfortunately, the show managers in the room also indicated by polling that they're not universally proud of the way they treat those smaller customers. Only 15 percent said that, if they were to ask their exhibitors, they would hear that their relationship was excellent. A surprising 26 percent had to admit that their exhibitors would say they only hear from show management when they have something they want to sell.

Amoruso and Ash said they could relate to what the show managers were talking about. And yet, it didn't seem to matter. Both said the mere handful of tradeshows they go to every year (in Ash's case, only one) are vital, and nothing could keep them away. While they have to juggle budget priorities and time commitments like any small business owner does, making the contacts they do on the showfloor is critical to their success.

Their most substantive complaint? Why, they asked, does the darned exhibitor manual have to be so big?

Maybe the show managers in the crowd went home and asked themselves the same thing. The overwhelming majority of their exhibitors do not have dedicated tradeshow staff. At the same time they're trying to plow through those exhibitor manuals, they're also managing their employees, handling production and trying to meet their financial goals.

We can only hope they're not also looking for easier ways than tradeshow exhibiting to meet their customers.