NACS’ Sessions Address Current Industry Trends

Attendance at the Natl. Assn. of Consumer Shows Annual Convention was slightly down, but NACS officials said the decline to approximately 115 attendees – about 50 fewer than last year – could be contributed to the head of the company attending, rather than several of the subordinates.

For the attendees who were there, NACS officials held several educational sessions to address the concerns that consumer show managers currently are expressing.

One of those sessions was “Global Trends: What Can We Expect? How Can We Adapt?” presented by Brenda Cooper, a futurist, award-winning science fiction writer and technology professional.

“The thing that’s got this room less full than last year ... is the recession,” Cooper said.

She divided attendees into groups to determine what they would send from 20 years in the future to themselves now. When the groups broke up, all the attendees said they talked about sending financial concerns, such as when the recession might end.

“Futurists really don’t have a crystal ball,” Cooper added. “I know it’d be nice if we could say when we’re going to drop out of the recession.”

But some show managers said despite consumer confidence being low and the decreases in the retail industry, their shows are performing well.

Sonja van Florestein, executive producer of the Houston Wedding Showcase, said she launched her show this year even though the economy was tight. The one-day show, held Feb. 28, attracted about 3,000 attendees and 85 exhibitors.

She added she wasn’t worried about the show’s launch because weddings are a sustainable industry.

“In the bridal industry,” van Florestein said, “they always have a budget.”

Marc McIntosh, who partners with van Florestein and produces 13 shows as executive producer of Showcase Productions, said the average wedding budget faces cutbacks, averaging 24 percent less, but that trend shifts business from one of the show exhibitors to another.

“People are always getting married,” he added. “Attendance numbers have been absolutely fine.”

In fact, McIntosh said, the budget consciousness happening with some of the brides who normally would have the largest budgets has put those brides in the markets the shows vendors' cater to.

Also at the convention was a session titled, “Developing New Revenue Streams from Your Show,” with Denise and Bill Medved, who are the CEO and COO, respectively, of The Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining Shows.

Denise Medved said the show originally launched in Washington, D.C., before the Atlanta and then the West Palm Beach, Fla., shows were added to the schedule.

“We built a template that we could take on the road,” she added.

But, the reason the shows still are so successful and in business in the rough economic time is creative measures to grow the show.

Bill Medved said some of the shows’ strengths are being able to offer large companies new product sampling, test sampling and recognition and endorsements from celebrity chefs.

The key to attracting nontraditional revenue sources, Denise Medved said, is having a great understanding of the show audience.

“If you can get (companies) to buy into your demographics,” she added, “you have a better chance of selling them something.”