Foreign Expansion: Keep It Local

Associations listen more and more to membership demands to find new markets for their products and services. In response, many based in North America are stretching overseas with conferences, conventions and tradeshows.

In fact, according to the Intl. Congress & Convention Assn., the number of meetings organized by North American associations in foreign countries has grown by 85 percent in the last 10 years, from a total of 605 in 1997 to 1,116 in 2006.

According to ICCA Marketing Project Manager Mathijs Vleeming, Latin America has been the greatest recipient of this business diplomacy with a growth in North American meetings activity in the region of 163 percent (43 meetings in 1997, compared with 113 in 2006), followed by Australia (154 percent) and Asia (106 percent).

When an association decides it is time to extend its reach, there are different options: It can create an exhibition that includes an educational element. It might organize a pavilion in an existing tradeshow. It could even organize a stand-alone conference that would provide valuable industry information to an audience hungry for relevant content.

Paul St. Amour, vice president, Latin America for E.J. Krause & Associates, is familiar with yet another approach, taking brands to new territories that have already been successful elsewhere. He has worked in Mexico City with such North American associations as the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (Expo Pack Mexico), the Intl. Water Resources Assn. (World Water Congress) and the Intl. Dairy Federation (World Dairy Summit).

In his experience, St. Amour said, Mexico is less intimidating for U.S. associations just beginning to stretch their legs as opposed to more far-flung locations, especially since a number of Mexican shows are already prepared to invite U.S. associations to stage pavilions or conferences.

PMMI was a good example, according to St. Amour. It already had a number of members doing business in Mexico, so it was easy to create a joint venture to launch its show with a Mexican partner. PMMI now owns the show outright, but even before that, it chose to have a pavilion at a Mexican event where exhibitors and attendees could do business in English.

For most associations though, Amour said, taking a conference overseas makes the most sense. And to help overcome whatever differences exist between ways of doing business in North America and other countries, he recommended it should be done in conjunction with the industry's counterpart association in the targeted country, which can also benefit by strengthening its own educational content.

While some associations from North America have tried to compete with their local counterparts, St. Amour said most typically cooperate with each other. An incoming association would have to already be familiar with the foreign market or have a special set of circumstances in its particular industry to even consider competing with a local entity, he added.

It is, in fact, a great advantage to seek cooperation. According to Peter Nathan, president of PWN Exhibicon Intl., who has staged events in such places as Cuba and Libya, partnering with your industry's counterpart association or other institution in the country in which you're holding your event is the best way to identify and overcome differences and challenges.

“The last thing you want to do is to compete with that association,” Nathan said. “They're much more valuable as allies. It's rare to find an association without some partner on the other side, at least initially, whether an event is looking for a collocation, a joint venture or a franchise.”

So how should associations go about trying new foreign destinations? Nathan recommended these steps:

• Keep it local, then make it even more local.
• Tailor conferences to local needs, and find someone native to the area with knowledge of the industry in question who knows how to put a conference together.
• Work with them to overcome the national and cultural differences to create a conference that adheres to U.S. content, but also addresses that country's needs, culture, language and challenges.

St. Amour said associations should test the waters first, like PMMI did with its pavilion in a local show. In some cases, associations may choose to identify overseas shows it can support, hoping mainly to draw attention to its activities back in North America. That method is used mostly for associations that are looking for ways to help their member companies export their products or services, St. Amour added.

Choosing the right country to start with is simpler than it might seem, St. Amour said. An association's members are likely to know where they want to go, and Mexico is often chosen because it's so close to the United States and Canada.

But another association, the Assn. of Equipment Manufacturers, decided it made perfect sense to choose somewhere else – China – to launch its brand, CONEXPO Asia, at which it emphasizes the educational aspect of its industry, on the showfloor, as well as in conference sessions, and largely with local partners.

By concentrating at first on education, rather than on an exhibition, associations provide members with the opportunity to demonstrate their expertise in specific areas, at the same time exploring opportunities for themselves in a particular country or region.