Dmg Cuts and Closes at George Little

Nearly nine months after dmg world media bought the remaining assets of George Little Management that it did not already own, there have been some drastic changes.

Dmg world media announced June 19 that it had canceled two shows in the GLM portfolio and the contract to manage three Affordable Meetings shows for the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Assn. Intl., eliminated 31 positions in the White Plains, N.Y., office and restructured its business-to-retail division.

Market conditions played a part in the changes, said Alan Steel, executive vice president, but “there was also a wish to streamline our business.”

Company officials wanted to have support services aligned with specific show teams, making them more responsive to the show teams' needs, he added.

Global Home Textiles and Global Home Decor were canceled, Steele said. A third show that had been collocated with those two, Gourmet Housewares Show, still is scheduled May 5-7 at the Sands Expo & Convention Center in Las Vegas.

All three were collocated with Reed Exhibitions' Natl. Hardware Show and Lawn & Garden World, No. 21 on the 2008 Tradeshow Week 200, and The Homewares Show, both at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Global Home Textiles was launched in 2007, and Global Home Decor followed in 2008.

The 31 employees whose positions were eliminated were former George Little Management staff members, Steele said. In October, dmg bought the remaining 51-percent interest in GLM it didn't already own. At the same time, dmg put its portfolio of 40 North American consumer events on the market, which it hasn't found a buyer for yet.

The eliminated positions were related to the two canceled shows and the HSMAI management contract, Steele said. Those positions included show managers, show staff and “some support staff roles that were conditional upon those (show management) roles,” he added.

Dmg will continue to manage the HSMAI events until Sept. 30, the last show being HSMAI's Affordable Meetings Natl., Sept. 10-11 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

“HSMAI will pick up the management for the next event, starting in March,” Steele said.

HSMAI President and CEO Robert A. Gilbert said, “We've actually been discussing this for a number of months.”

People have been trained to take over the management of the show, he added.

From an exhibitor and attendee standpoint, Gilbert said the transition to HSMAI managing the event won't be noticeable.

The realignment of the B-to-R division at GLM will create three teams, Steele said, headed by Senior Vice Presidents Phil Robinson, Dorothy Belshaw and Lori Kisner. Kisner will manage her team in Atlanta; Robinson and Belshaw are located in the White Plains office. All three report to Steele.

“By implementing this new operational structure, we can maximize efficiencies and position ourselves to provide better service to our customers,” Steele said.

Robinson will continue to oversee the Intl. Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show (No. 121 on the most recent TSW 200), Steele said. Robinson's added responsibilities include the Natl. Stationery Show (No. 123 on the TSW 200), SURTEX, Gourmet Housewares Show and supervision of the operations department.

Lynn White was appointed manager of the Intl. Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show. Penny Sikalis was appointed manager of the Gourmet Housewares Show, SURTEX and international sales for Intl. Contemporary Furniture Fair. Both report to Robinson.

Steele added that Kisner will continue to oversee Surf Expo (Nos. 109 and 120 on the TSW 200), but her responsibilities now extend to the West Coast gift shows, including the California Gift Show (Nos. 129 and 132 on the TSW 200) in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Intl. Gift Fair (Nos. 136 and 148 on the TSW 200), The Seattle Gift Show and the Portland Gift & Accessories Show. Chris Gowe, vice president of West Coast gift shows, will report to her.

Belshaw, in addition to her responsibilities with the New York Intl. Gift Fair (Nos. 27 and 29 on the TSW 200), will oversee the Boston Gift Show, as well as Canadian gift shows – including Alberta Gift Show, Montreal Gift Show and Vancouver Gift Show – and supervise public relations activities in the White Plains office, Steele said. Christian Falkenberg was appointed manager of the New York Intl. Gift Fair, and Anita Schachter was named vice president of Canadian gift shows. Both will report to Belshaw.

Belshaw said Falkenberg's appointment to manager of the New York show will leave her time to design strategies and strengthen the show. The New York show has a reputation of the highest level in the gift fair market, Belshaw added.

“My goal is to enhance that reputation,” she said. Her plan is to enhance the integrity of the categories of exhibitors at the show, making them “shows within a show” and growing vertical markets.

Belshaw said she also hopes to meet and overcome challenges Canadian shows are facing and maintain their strength, creating synergies between those shows and the New York show.

“More and more, we have been attracting to the New York show Canadian retailers,” she added.