Rachel Wimberly

Heading to Tradeshow Week Fastest 50

In just four short days, the staff here at Tradeshow Week will be heading to Houston to take part in the seventh annual TSW Fastest 50 celebration.

This will be the fourth year I’ve gone to the event, with past events I attended being held in Baltimore, Atlanta and Boston, all cities I previously had visited.

On the other hand, I have never set foot outside of the Houston airport and look forward to discovering a new city I’ve extensively written about for the magazine.

I am particularly looking forward to this year’s celebration because, quite honestly, there hasn’t been much to celebrate in the past year or so. Since the economic downturn really took hold last fall and then kept a stranglehold on not only the tradeshow industry, but also the general economy, it actually was pretty depressing to write story after story about attendance and exhibitors being down, as well as shows postponing and canceling.

Business-to-business companies already were suffering, with advertising revenues in a downward slide for the past few years, and for some companies having their events divisions also impacted made things even tougher.

But, this weekend, I am thrilled to join my colleagues, show managers from the 50 fastest-growing shows in the U.S. and Canada and other tradeshow industry professionals and really give kudos to shows that have beaten the odds and are doing well in spite of it all.

The weekend kicks off with a welcome party at the House of Blues, then the next day there’s an executive-level conference, followed by the gala celebration for all of the winners that evening. The next morning, there will be a brunch, and then everyone will head off in their separate directions after what promises to be a really fun weekend.

Posted by Rachel Wimberly on November 9, 2009 | Comments (1)