Eye on Exhibitions   

At TSW's Fastest 50 this year, held Nov. 13-15 in Houston, I felt one of the most valuable aspects of the weekend was the Saturday morning conference session(s). Multiple speakers (like Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Assn., who really wowed the crowd with an engaging and entertaining presentation on the importance of meetings and travel) took to the stage and covered myriad topics, from show audits and technology to ROI and what the future holds for shows. And those just scrape the surface of what was discussed.

In my opinion, one of the most interesting comments brought up came from Michael Hughes, TSW's vice president of research and consulting. Citing research conducted this year, Hughes said, for the future, rather than assuring attendees that economic recovery is occurring, show managers will want to research how attendees can “get an edge.&rdq...Read More

In the economic downturn, travel and meeting industry associations like the U.S. Travel Assn., Meeting Professionals Intl. and Intl. Assn. of Exhibitions and Events – to name a few – have been working harder than they ever have to combat the negative rhetoric surrounding meeting business, and many sources I’ve spoken with in past months have stressed the importance of communication and working with others to strengthen the meetings industry. Even so, I’ve found it a bit disappointing to stumble upon several scenarios recently in which people in the industry have opened up lines of communication, had a less than desirable encounter, or let assumptions get the better of them, and then put up a wall.

Such seemed to be the case in a situation I reported on involving some shows in the same industry sector, both vying for the same attendee and exhibitor...Read More

Recently, I wrote an article on lead retrieval and follow-up, which covered what exhibitors are doing – or not doing – in the lead gathering process. After talking to so many industry insiders on the subject, I also gained quite a bit of insight from each about the right steps that exhibitors should take to help them get better results from their leads from the start. Below is just a sampling of what I learned from several sources:

• Candy Adams, a consultant also known as the Booth Mom, said there are three ways that exhibiting companies put themselves at a disadvantage before a show: not marketing to people they really wanted to market to before a show, not planning the entire lead process at one time, and not training staff on the value of leads.

• Barry Si...Read More

Sometimes, you start off writing a story about a specific event and, while you might have wanted to include all content related to the subject – especially if it follows up on past coverage – unfortunately, it doesn’t always quite fit the storyline.

Furthermore, if said related content is pending pertinent information in order for it to qualify for its own story space, the question arises: How do I get this news out? 

That happened to me last week while I was covering, for TSW’s June 8 issue, the launch of Paragon Group’s Boston Flower and Garden Show, which will be coming to Boston next year. 

My intention with the story was to spread the word that Boston would again have a flower show after losing its largest annual one, the 137-year-old Massachusetts Horticultural Society&rsq...Read More