InfoComm Soars, NXTcomm's Flat

LAS VEGAS—Collocating for the first time at the Las Vegas Convention Center, telecom industry show NXTcomm, held June 17-19, and audiovisual show InfoComm Intl., held June 18-20, may have been in the same building sharing similar dates, but their shows had completely different outcomes.

According to Jason McGraw, senior vice president of expositions for InfoComm Intl., his event's numbers were up all across the board.

“We're over the moon,” he said. “It's just fabulous. The exhibitors can't believe how many people are here.”

Meanwhile, NXTcomm Executive Director Wayne Crawford said his show's numbers were flat, compared with last year's show at McCormick Place in Chicago.

“The (telecom) industry is facing challenges,” Crawford said. “There's been a lot of M&A activity; the economy's been a negative factor. There's more and more people cutting back on travel.”

InfoComm snagged the award for fastest-growing association show at Tradeshow Week's Fastest 50 event last year in Atlanta and, with the numbers from this year's show, McGraw said he thinks it may have a shot at winning again. “We're up 15 percent on floor space, 10 to 15 percent up in attendees, revenue is up 15 percent, and there are 988 exhibitors this year compared to 861 last year,” he added.

McGraw attributed some of that to the absorption by InfoComm Intl. of the Natl. Systems Contractors Assn., a 2,500-member association, and its show.

InfoComm took up the LVCC's North and Central Halls with its 500,000 net square foot showfloor. On opening day, the floor was packed with attendees, what McGraw labeled a reflection of growth in the AV industry. “We're already out of badge lanyards and floor plan maps,” he added when he spoke with TSW that afternoon.

Over in the South Hall, where NXTcomm was in its second day, it was a different story. Crawford said the scene was similar to last year's show in Chicago, with about 15,273 attendees on a 200,000 net sq. ft. showfloor.

The telecom industry has certainly struggled, but NXTcomm also has been challenged to create its own identity since it launched last year after the two telecom associations that own it, the Telecommunications Industry Assn. and the USTelecom Assn., dumped their annual Supercomm show, produced separate events in 2006 and then joined forces again.

“Last year was a challenge branding a whole event,” Crawford said.

NXTcomm exhibitor Barbara Boyle, senior manager of marketing and communications for Tektronix, a test and measurement company, said, “There's always going to be a comparison to Supercomm, but a lot has happened since then. There was Sept. 11 and consolidation of the telecom industry. There are a lot of reasons the show could be slow; it's not just the famous spat between TIA and USTelecom.”

She added, “Will it ever be like the old days of Supercomm? That remains to be seen.”

One of the two shows held on its own in 2006, USTelecom's TelecomNext, still had a year left on its contract at the venue, so Crawford said there was little choice but to hold NXTcomm this year in Las Vegas. Boyle partly blamed the location for the flat attendance.

“Vegas is not a good venue,” she added. “Where are the phone company headquarters in Vegas? There are more in the Midwest in general.”

NXTcomm exhibitor Heather Komomua, tradeshow manager for ADC, agreed: “We would prefer it be in Chicago,” she said. “We'll be happy to see it come back.”

Crawford said the show had a 40-percent drop in attendees from Wisconsin, Indiana and Illinois. “Some was made up from California,” he added, “and there's better geographic diversity (this year).”

Bill Sandiford, a NXTcomm attendee from Canada, said he was happy with Las Vegas. “It's good for us Canadians,” Sandiford said. “Alternating with Chicago would be an awesome idea,” he added. “People come here that won't come to Chicago, and people come to Chicago that won't come here.”

NXTcomm will head back to Chicago on its own in 2009. InfoComm will go to Orlando, starting a two-city rotation with Las Vegas that will take it through the next six years. Crawford said NXTcomm was close to signing a contract with the LVCC that would put it back in Sin City in 2010 as well. Still to be determined is whether the two shows will collocate again that year.

“We need to determine the synergies between the two shows,” Crawford said. “There's little exhibitor overlap, but InfoComm attendees, for (NXTcomm) exhibitors, are bodies.”

Since InfoComm had just opened on NXTcomm's second day, he added, he had little feedback yet on how many attendees would visit both shows. Still, Crawford said he expected most would be there the following day.

McGraw, on the other hand, said he had seen “hundreds” of NXTcomm attendees on his showfloor. “We'd like to continue the relationship (with NXTcomm),” he added.

The shows jointly sponsored a Web site, www.2shows1trip.com, to cross-market their events to attendees. Future success, though, might depend on convincing attendees it's worth it to check the other show out. A number of those polled by TSW said they weren't particularly interested in visiting a show different from the one they'd specifically come for.

“I have no intention of going (to NXTcomm),” said InfoComm attendee Michael Rivas, a senior systems engineer for rental staging company Videocam. “It's not really my thing.”