CAEM Meeting Preview: Change Is on Canadian Minds

The Canadian Assn. of Exposition Management Annual Conference will focus on educating its approximately 170 expected attendees on how to succeed despite the changes the industry continues to go through, said CAEM Executive Director Serge Micheli. The event takes place June 24–26 at the Village at the Blue Mountain Conference Centre in Collingwood, Ontario.

"At this point there isn't a specific issue that we are addressing as a main concern to us," Micheli said. "Our goal is to help members facilitate change, as things are changing as quickly in our industry as they are in others."

The conference's theme is excellence through change, and Micheli said its educational program would provide information on communicating and changing along with customers and staff. He said attendee registrations were higher than usual this year.

Delivered by Stephen Pia, founder, media sales trainer and coach of Coach Media Conference, the meeting's keynote speech will deal with being true to show managers' most important customers: their audiences. Sessions will cover such topics as successful succession, sponsorship expectations, partnering with vendors, creating a brand and customer relationship management.

The Canadian industry faces three major issues, according to Laura Purdy, director of sales and marketing for the Direct Energy Centre & Exhibition Place in Toronto. One is recognizing the value of attendee marketing.

"Show managers need to focus their energies and budgets on attracting qualified attendees to their tradeshows, as opposed to simply selling exhibit space to meet a bottom line," she said. "CAEM has recognized the importance of this in their 2007 conference program with its keynote speaker."

Purdy added that passport regulations and the possible suspension of tax rebates for foreign meetings would have a negative impact on the ability of Canadian tradeshows to draw exhibitors and attendees from the United States and for U.S. events to locate or expand into Canada.

"This is a much bigger issue than can be addressed at a CAEM conference," she said, but CAEM has communicated and lobbied both the Canadian and U.S. governments on the importance of these issues to its membership and the tourist economy.

Finally, Purdy said, an issue that will soon become more important to the Canadian industry is the impact of the exhibition and convention businesses on the environment. To date, CAEM has not addressed this, but Purdy hopes that, as awareness increases, CAEM will incorporate environmental issues into its learning opportunities.

"As an environmentally responsible venue, we would welcome the opportunity to participate in the development of a future learning program," she said.

The CAEM meeting program will include a program for the Intl. Assn. of Exhibitions and Events' Certified in Exhibition Management designation. It will include a course for service contractors, one on event operations and a three-hour Supplier Trade Summit with about 45 booths.