Playing It Safe at the N.Y. Gift Fair

NEW YORK—The economy didn't keep attendees off the showfloor at the New York Intl. Gift Fair, but it did have an impact on their buying once they got there.

On the second to last day of the show, exhibitor James Leritz, design director for New York City-based Kiln Enamel, said, “Buyers have been placing smaller-sized orders. They tell me they want to see how the economy's going, and then they will order more.”

Some buyers at the show – held Aug. 16-21 at the Jacob K. Javits Center of New York, Metropolitan Pavilion and The Show Piers on the Hudson at the New York City Passenger Ship Terminal – were even more conservative.

“(Buyers) definitely had worries about the economy,” said Barbara Von Schreiber, owner of Litchfield, Conn.-based The Dutch Touch Art Co. “Where they would have bought before, they are thinking about it now.”

Motosayu Maki, director of Mushashino, Japan-based Nagakura Co., was one of those buyers who kept his wallet in his pocket while he checked out products.

“I want to look at things and then follow up online,” he said. “It's completely different now than when things used to be ordered on the floor.”

Christian Falkenberg, vice president of George Little Management, a dmg world media company that owns the show, said even though final attendance numbers weren't available by press time, the numbers were on par with last year when 35,962 attendees showed up.

In addition, he added, there were 2,900 exhibitors and a 610,000 net square foot showfloor, compared with 2,635 exhibitors and 595,816 net sq. ft. in 2007.

“The show's been great, and attendance has been very strong,” Falkenberg said. “With the way the economy is, there was some concern on what we'd see here.”

Some exhibitors didn't share Falkenberg's assessment of how many attendees were on the showfloor.

“It's been down as far as attendance,” said Palmer Earley, owner of Austin, Texas-based Architects and Heroes. “People who are doing well are coming here and spending the same, but there really seems to be a divide between doing well and not doing well.”

Exhibitor Michael Reiner, president of Tenafly, N.J.-based Resource Intl., agreed with Earley, and said he wasn't writing as many orders because there were fewer people at the show compared with last year. “It's a percentage game really,” he added. “There are fewer people spending the money to travel here.”

By all accounts, including show management's, Sunday and Monday were relatively busy days on the showfloor, but by Wednesday the crowds had tapered off.

Even so, Reiner said he had realistic expectations coming into the show. “It's very difficult to assess the value of the show until six months after (it) because of the leads,” he added. “At the end of the day, it could be a phenomenal show.”

Dorothy Belshaw, GLM senior vice president of the business-to-retail division, which oversees the N.Y. Intl. Gift Fair, said particularly in a struggling economy, it's the show manager's duty to help exhibitors understand they need to promote themselves before the show, as well as utilize the show's promotions, in order to succeed.

“They need to focus on also buys made after the show, not just on the orders (at the show),” Belshaw added. “Buyers are being much more circumspect, so it's critical for exhibitors to follow up on leads.”

All in all, even if there were fewer orders placed on the floor and not as many attendees at the show, exhibitors and attendees alike said, while they might be cutting other tradeshows out of their schedules because of soaring costs, they weren't about to skip the New York event.

Attendee Luha Marino, owner of Newburgh, N.Y.-based Mid-Valley Wine & Liquor, said she has been coming to the show for five years. “There was no question of coming this time,” Marino added. “It's the show for me.”

Earley said, “We didn't cut our budget here in any way, and there was no thought of pulling out of the show.”

GLM has a number of West Coast gift shows, some of which have had significant drops in exhibitors recently, but the New York event is so successful that it had the exact opposite problem. Belshaw said there are “thousands” of exhibitors on a list waiting to get on the showfloor.

One of the long-standing issues in the city has been lack of space, exacerbated by the Javits Center's on-again, off-again expansion plans.

Now, Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. may finally have answered the New York gift show's prayers with the planned $100 million expansion of Pier 94, also know as The UnConvention Center, which will add 215,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space to the existing 140,000 sq. ft.

At the time of the announcement, Belshaw said, “It's fabulous news.” Though, she added, until she actually saw the expansion plans, she was “cautiously optimistic.”

In February, MMPI also will take over management of the piers from ENK Intl., which has held the contract since 1994.

Exhibitors at the pier during the New York show also were happy with the news the venues would be under new management.

On Pier 92, Beth Weintraub, owner of San Francisco-based Weintraub Studios, said, “The people who have been doing the piers have been asleep at the wheel. The bathrooms are worse than a Turkish bus station.”

She added, “MMPI has done a great job with their shows, and, in all my experiences with them, they have had good attention to detail.”