PCBC Gets Hammered, Survives Blow

New housing construction in California is off by 63 percent since the beginning of the year, “the lowest since it was first recorded in the 1950s,” according to Linda Baysari, senior vice president of meetings and conventions for the California Building Industry Assn.

So, when Baysari said she was “delighted” with how PCBC 2008, a home building show and conference owned by CBIA and held June 24-27 at San Francisco's Moscone Center, turned out – even with a steep 25-percent drop in attendance – she meant it.

“Obviously, we knew attendance would be down,” she added. “Home building has been hard hit. (The decline) is in context for us.”

The 2007 event drew 26,700 attendees, and Baysari said she estimated 20,000 were at this year's show.

Sometimes, though, it's not about who didn't come to the show, but who did.

“We take our cue from the exhibitors ultimately, and, by and large, it exceeded their expectations,” Baysari said. “There were a lot of qualified buyers.”

In other words, she added, the attendees who showed up were buying, not just window shopping.

Exhibitor Jerry Weston, sales and marketing manager for Bonded Logic, said, “The show for us was great.”

His company hadn't been to PCBC in a few years, he added, but it was back this year to show off its UltraTouch product, cotton fiber insulation sold as a sustainable product.

“We're very well-known in (the green) area,” Weston said. “We got a lot of good leads at the show. We didn't notice if it was down.”

Another exhibitor, Paul Biondi, a sales representative for Vancouver, British Columbia-based Miles Industries who was at the show to sell gas fireplaces, echoed Weston's sentiments.

“We had a really good show,” Biondi said. “It seemed as though there was good general interest, which was kind of surprising with all the gloom-and-doom talk. We were quite happy with the results.”

He added that he did notice aisle traffic was down, but he still felt his company's booth had a “better than normal response.”

Even though there were nearly 7,000 fewer people on the showfloor, Baysari said, it was probably just as crowded since there was one less hall used: It was down from 234,000 square feet in 2007 to 195,000 sq. ft. this year. However, there were 690 exhibitors this year, compared with 650 last year.

And she figures they must have been happy: The association sold 80 percent of the booth space for next year's show on site this year. “Exhibitors will vote with their pocketbooks,” Baysari said. “It's realistic optimism.”

Most of the show's attendees, Baysari said, came from California, Arizona, Nevada and Washington. Also, because the housing market hasn't been hit nearly as hard north of the border, she added, there was a good showing from Canada.

Another bright spot to the show, Baysari said, was a Leader-to-Leader forum with C-level executives from the home building industry held over two days before the show opened. Last year, 105 executives attended the invitation-only event; this year, there were 100.

“It underscores the idea that, when times get tough, decision makers are seeking more input and they want to be around their peers,” Baysari said. “We were very pleased.”