Global Leaders: Continental Shift

Reed Exhibitions is changing.

When Nancy Walsh became executive vice president of the company last month, she essentially rose to the top tradeshow position in the United States - her boss Chet Burchett, president of Reed Exhibitions Americas, notwithstanding.

At the same time Walsh was promoted, the company made several other changes among its senior management staff, shifting shows and duties among various vice presidents and directors. According to Burchett, it was due to drastic changes that have taken place in the last several years, the result of divestitures, acquisitions, a new core market-focused strategy and an accompanying growth spurt.

In her new role, Walsh oversees the company's traditional tradeshow business in North America, freeing Burchett to focus on expanding the business in health care and Latin America.

To give some idea of the scope of Walsh's new responsibility, a quick search of U.S. events on www.reedexpo.com turns up 71 for 2008. In all, around the globe, Reed Exhibitions claims more than 460 events.

And yet, when Tradeshow Week Senior Editor Heidi Genoist asked Walsh what her goals were - where she saw herself in five years - what leapt to Walsh's mind was “more growth,” both for herself, and the company.

Walsh shared her strategy for achieving that, as well as her views on industry trends, with Genoist in a recent interview.

Question: Summarize the executive restructuring that took place at Reed Exhibitions recently.

Answer: I don't know if I would call it a restructuring; rather it's a realignment. It's the same players in different places. Our business has changed dramatically in the past couple years. Almost one-third of the business we have for 2008, we didn't have in 2005. Based on the complexion of the business changing, we did some realigning. I'm going to be responsible for most of the traditional tradeshow business and, still reporting to Chet (Burchett) directly (in his area of responsibility), health care and Latin America.

Q: How will this change what you do?

A: What that enables us to do is focus primarily on our customers. We will be driving focus on the customers across the business on a broader scale. We will be developing and sharing best practices across the business, and training and developing our people.

Q: You mentioned Latin America. How does that tie in with your North American responsibilities?

A: It gives Chet more opportunity to focus specifically internationally, while I'm sort of holding down the fort here in the States.

Q: Has this position been a goal of yours for some time?

A: Absolutely. When Chet came on board a couple years ago, we spoke about a lot of different things, in terms of growth and progression. He outlined the path and objectives for me. I've been here for 22 years, and this is a role that I have aspired to for quite some time. So, I'm thrilled, to say the least.

Q: Describe the two or three most important steps you took to get here.

A: There were a couple things. I needed to demonstrate to Chet my ability to think strategically, grow the business and deliver on the promises I'd made – achieving my objectives.

Q: In the last few years, Reed Exhibitions has undergone several changes. What's the result of all that today?

A: Our focus is different, in terms of the markets we're in, specifically health care – that's of the utmost importance – and South America, luxury and lifestyle, security, hearth and home.

Q: How has this changed the personality of the company, compared to what it was three or four years ago?

A: Clearly, we're more customer-focused and more education-focused. We're doing constant research, focus groups, we're in constant conversations with customers, doing face-to-face follow-up, to make sure we're moving in the right direction. We survey our customers annually to be able to compare how we're doing, and I'm happy to be able to say that our satisfaction levels across the board are heading in the right direction.

Q: Other major business-to-business media companies have reorganized according to industry, integrating print, online and face-to-face. Reed Elsevier (parent company of both Reed Exhibitions and Reed Business Information, owner of Tradeshow Week) remains fundamentally structured by medium. Does that make your market-focused strategy difficult?

A: We work extremely well with our publishing arm, and it's stronger in certain sectors than in others, depending on the synergy. In jewelry, by way of example, there's a wonderful relationship. But in terms of moving forward, and different mediums, I think we're all interested in the e-space, and I think that's been a big focus of ours.

Q: What has your foray into more serious education-driven events taught you?

A: A couple different things. In health care, education is obviously important, and that's a main focus of that sector, particularly with all the changes going on there. … Throughout the rest of the organization, we've had some events that do fantastic in terms of conferences, and others that do it as a loss leader, and others that are somewhere in between.

Through our surveys, we have found that when we provide people with good education, it gives them more reason to come and increases the value of our events. What we've learned is, the better the education sessions, the better the conferences, the more value our customers get and the better-attended our events are.

Q: Do you think the increased focus on education is here to stay?

A: Our view is that it's a value, a component of the event. We say that, specifically: “the event,” not the tradeshow.

Q: Does that suggest a fundamental difference in what show organizers do today?

A: Yes. We talk about an event now, whereas years ago it was booth space. Now when we talk about an event, it's networking opportunities and bringing communities together. What we're doing is offering more keynote speakers, cocktail parties, education, forums, networking lounges and any opportunity we can create to bring the community together, bring the buyers and sellers together, and enhance the entire experience. Today, people don't walk away saying they went to a tradeshow. They walk away talking about what they learned, who they met and what the experience was like.

Q: You mentioned surveys and conversations with customers. What are you hearing from your teams on the ground about trends on the showfloor?

A: What we see in all our research is, people are coming to events to see what's new; not just new products and new technology, but more efficient ways to accomplish their goals, get educated.

Q: Nothing about attendance declines?

A: We're coming off a very strong year where, now that we have auditing in place, we know attendance at most of our events has increased.

Q: Why's that?

A: We've gotten into partnerships with groups such as BDMetrics and EventMingle that are really pushing appointment-setting and other attempts to bring the buyer and seller together. We have people pre-planning, using our Web sites in advance, so that when they get there, they've got their map, and they know who they're going to see. We're really striving for efficiency. People's time is of the essence. When they get there, they want to get their business done, make their contacts, do their networking and get back on the plane.

Q: Two years ago, responding to industry pressure, Reed undertook a massive effort to audit its shows. Where does that effort stand today?

A: We continue to audit. We think it's right for our customers. We think it gives us credibility, takes out any subjectivity, and we've gotten very positive feedback on it from our customers.

Q: What percentage of your shows is independently audited now?

A: I would say close to 95 percent – almost all of them.

Q: Have you been disappointed by the rest of the industry's failure to follow suit?

A: No, absolutely not. It was something we decided to do for our customers. Whether other companies decided to do it as well was irrelevant to us.

Q: Many U.S. shows are reporting increased international participation lately. How do you recruit exhibitors and attendees from abroad?

A: We have some of our general management folks that do abroad trips. Right now we have (Senior Vice President) Dean Russo, who is heading up hardware and security and some other areas – he's got a full plate – just coming back from a week in Asia meeting with associations and individual customers and different groups. So, we have that traditional method. And we also have a network of agents that are promoting both exhibitors and attendance throughout the world. That's the ISG, the international sales group.

Q: What challenges does the North American events industry face today?

A: The hotel costs across the board in most of the major cities are a challenge for us. Working with the different venues in different cities can be challenging. I'd say those are the top two.

Q: What are the next big trends we'll see?

A: People using the Web to do pre-planning for their events is becoming more and more popular, and the use of the partners that we've built relationships with seems to increase every year as customers get familiar with the tools they have available. I think that's going to become more prevalent and important to people as we move forward.