HSMAI Offers Event Tech Expo in 2008
Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 9/24/2007
The Hospitality Sales & Marketing Assn. Intl., George Little Management and Alliance Consulting Strategies will collaborate to produce the Event Technology Expo at HSMAI's Affordable Meetings Natl. Sept. 10–11 at the Washington (D.C.) Convention Center.
According to HSMAI, ETE will be the first large-scale event of its kind focused on technology for tradeshows, meetings and special events.
HSMAI has three Affordable Meetings events every year, and the D.C. edition is the largest. In the past, technology exhibitors were interspersed with other booths on the main showfloor, but at the national meeting next year they will have their own spot.
"The Event Technology Expo will have a separate area to enhance the theme," said Rob Weissman, President of Alliance Consulting Strategies. "It costs money to be at the event for the exhibitor, and we need to show them it's worth it."
HSMAI announced the new event at this year's national show, held Sept. 5–6. Weissman said response from exhibitors had been largely positive. "They say it's a great idea," he added.
Affordable Meetings events have an in-depth conference program, and Weissman said it now would include sessions geared toward tradeshow technology as well.
Jack Withiam, executive vice president of GLM and co-chair of the ETE Conference Advisory Board, said "When I speak with my peers throughout the industry, as well as my associates across the 50-plus GLM shows, it's clear that a comprehensive and intensive educational forum combined with a full-scale, hands-on product exhibition, is needed to assist managers in the process of making mission-critical decisions that will affect their events and bottom line for years to come."
The national meeting has an average of 2,000 attendees, mostly meeting planners, and HSMAI has 7,000 members worldwide, with 39 chapters in the U.S.
