Exposition Management

1
Exposition Management

• Chapter 30

2
Objectives

• After completing chapter 30, the reader will be
  able to
• Determine how to evaluate a facility for an
  exposition.
• Determine how much exhibit space is required to
  hold an exposition.
• Discuss how to prepare a budget for an
  exposition.
• Plan a marketing program to sell exhibit space.
• Plan the elements of an exhibitor prospectus.
• Plan the elements of an exhibitor service kit.

3
Introduction

• Adding an exposition or trade show to an
  educational conference or meeting creates a
  viable marketplace for buyer to meet seller.

4
Why Plan an Exposition?

• Stimulate attendee participation
• Hands -on educational experience
• View products and services in relationship to
  their companys needs

5
Center for Exhibition Industry Research

• CEIR research validates that expositions provide
  a cost-effective marketing opportunity for
  exhibitors when compared to the costs of reaching
  the same numbers of potential customers through
  direct sales.

6
CEIRs Study Revealed
1. Direct Sales
4. Direct Mail
2. Exhibitions
5. Telemarketing
3. Advertising
6. Public Relations
7
Facilities

• Selecting the facility that will best suit the
  needs of the organization, the attendees and the
  exhibitors is very important. The facility
  contributes significantly to the success of the
  overall event. Before choosing an exhibit hall,
  you need to consider the following...

8
Types of Facilities
Market Centers
Trade Centers
EXHIBITIONS
Universities
Colleges
9
Location

• Convention centers and convention hotels are
  located
• Outskirts of major cities
• Near the citys center
• Near major airports
• Distance from airports
• May lack international or major airport

10
Accessibility

• Freight
• People
• Space
• Hotels publish gross square footage of space
• Standard booth is 10 X10 or 100 sq. ft.
• or 8 X 10 or 80 sq. ft.

11
Hall Rental

• The following overhead depicts questions you
  should ask when negotiating a hall rental
  agreement.

12
Physical and Utility Requirements

• Columns
• Stairwells, escalators and elevators
• Entrances
• Ceiling heights and obstructions
• Lighting fixtures
• Heating and air conditioning ducts
• Floor loads material composition
• Utility port locations
• (continued)

13
Physical and Utility Requirements

• Loading docks and freight elevators
• Crate storage area
• Truck marshaling area
• Bus and taxi pick-up drop off areas
• Parking facilities
• Location and acoustics of meeting rooms
  equipment therein

14
Accessibility (continued)

• Experience of key facility personnel
• Facility rules and regulations
• Fire regulations
• Union regulations
• Exclusive in-house contracts
• Electrical and utilities
• Telecommunications,
• Cleaning catering
• Floral
• Registration, etc.

15
Hotel Room Blocks

• Selecting hotels
• Cleanliness, comfort and convenience
• Adequately furnished sleeping rooms
• Equipped with
• Business center, telecommunications center,
  coffee shop, fitness center, facilities for
  disabled, etc.

16
Budgeting

• Estimating expenses
• Marketing exhibit space
• Providing exhibitor services
• Producing the exposition
• Include the following in a basic expense budget
  for an exposition

17
Management Costs

• cost of management, clerical, sales personnel
  time and/or commissions
• allocated office expenses (rent, utilities, etc.)
• telephone, fax, photocopies
• liability and cancellation insurance
• cost of outside exposition management company
  (optional)

18
Marketing/Sales Cost

• artwork for an exhibitor prospectus
• artwork and printing for letterheads and
  envelopes
• printing and mailing costs for exhibitor
  prospectuses
• database development costs, purchase price of
  mailing lists
• printing and postage for follow-up mailings
• development, printing and analysis of evaluation
  instrument

19
Exhibitor Services Costs

• purchasing binders and tabs for exhibitor service
  kit printing of pages for the service kit (Note
  as part of their agreement with show management,
  general service contractors either provide the
  exhibitor service kits or just their forms)
• artwork and printing for guest passes for
  exhibitor distribution
• artwork and printing for directory of exhibits.

20
Production and Exposition Costs

• Refer to overhead

21
Budgeting (continued)

• Estimating revenues
• determine how much space you might sell
• determine what proceeds you want to generate from
  this activity

22
Budgeting (continued)

• Exhibit space sales

Basis for Pricing
Divide of booths or net square feet
EXPENSES
Projected sq. ft. or number of booths
Estimated exhibit space sales revenue
Sq. ft. price or booth price
X

23
Budgeting (continued)

• Registration fees are a source of income
• Some shows allow exhibitors unlimited badges
• Others allow 5-10 pre 100 sq. ft. of space and
  charge for additional badges
• Some allow attendees free admission
• Others allow pre-registered attendees to attend
  free or a nominal fee for on-site registration

24
Budgeting (continued)

• Sponsorships/other income
• Create awareness of their companys presence at
  the show
• Build their image and generate traffic
• Offer activities coffee breaks, receptions,
  billboard advertising, etc.
• Merchandise sales
• Sell advertising (i.e., directory)
• Interest-bearing accounts and forfeited exhibit
  space deposits

25
Exhibitor Prospectus

• Information to include
• Brochure
• Floor plan
• Space application and sales letter

26
Exhibitor Prospectus

• Brochure should include
• show name, dates, and location
• brief overview of the purpose of exposition
• who should exhibit and why they should
• who attends
• profile or demographics of potential attendees
• (continued)

27
Exhibitor Prospectus

• Brochure should include
• a statement about the power of expositions
• sample list of previous or potential attendees
• exhibit hall hours
• restrictions for exhibits
• highlights or quotes about the previous years
  success.

28
Exhibit Space Contracts

• The application may be a two-sided document or it
  may be multiple pages, printed on all sides using
  carbonized stock. The design should be
  uncluttered, but it must allow room to provide
  the necessary information required for the space
  assignment.

29
The next few over heads deal with what a basic
contract should include.
30
Floor Plan

• Show management must determine how they want to
  develop the show floor. The general contractor
  may lay the initial floor plan out in 10 t. X 10
  ft. booths. Show management may combine some of
  the standard booths (in-lines) to form larger
  spaces. The initial plan could include a variety
  of island booths of varying sizes, and perimeter
  booths.

31
Standard Booth

• This is a basic back-wall booth. It is designed
  to stand back-to-back with an opposite row of
  booths, and will probably have adjacent booths on
  one or both sides. One side (occasionally two)
  faces an aisle. The normal depth (aisle to
  back-wall) is 10 ft. (3.05m), although hotel
  showrooms sometimes downscale this dimension to 8
  ft. (2.44m). The standard width is 10 ft. a
  booth can, of course, occupy two, three or more
  adjacent 10-ft. booths. The back-wall height for
  standard booths is 83 this uniformity insures
  that no booth will interfere with or detract from
  a smaller adjacent (or back-to-back) booth.

32
Perimeter Wall Booths

• Similar to the standard booth in all respects
  except in the height of the back-wall and
  adjacent wings, which, in this case, is up to 12
  ft. (3.66m). Since these booths are designed for
  setup against a wall, their added height wont
  detract from a back-to-back neighbor. The 5 ft.
  sightline restrictions still apply for wing
  extensions (side rails) to the aisles and for
  exhibit fixtures. Many exhibitors who want to
  take advantage of the extra height permitted for
  perimeter wall booths will design their booth to
  work heights of 12 ft. or 8 ft. this way, they
  can use the same exhibit in different venues,
  utilizing space.

33
Peninsula Booth

• Surrounded on 3 sides by aisles, the peninsula
  booth usually consists of 4 or more booth units
  (10 X 10 each). The standard height for a
  peninsula booth is 16 ft. On the sides and
  corners bordered by aisles, peninsula booths may
  be built up to 16 feet all the way out to the
  aisles. Where peninsula booths have adjacent
  neighbors, all previously described sightline
  restrictions apply.

34
Island Booth

• Bordered on all four sides by aisles, the island
  booth has no adjacent neighbors - and none of the
  sightline restrictions imposed on other booth
  types. The only restriction is that of height -
  16 ft. The rational for imposing height
  restrictions on island (and peninsula) booths is
  to avoid skyscraper contests among exhibitors,
  who understandably look for any attention getting
  edge in the visually competitive environment of
  the exposition floor.

35
Island Booth (continued)

• All display structures over 12 ft. in height
  should have drawings available for review on
  site. The drawings should be stamped or signed
  by a structural engineer and by the firm which
  build the exhibit.

36
Space Assignment Procedures / Policies

• The following factors should be considered in
  assigning space to limit exposure to potential
  antitrust liability
• An exhibitors past performance
• Amount of exhibit space requested
• Date of receipt of the application and deposit
• Space preferences, location of competition
• Product or service to be displayed
• Eligibility to exhibit
• Member and Non-members

37
Space Assignment Procedures / Policies
(continued)

• Popular methods for assigning exhibit space
• First-come, first-served
• Priority point system
• Lottery system
• Advance sale

38
Marketing of Exhibit Space

• Marketing tools - Marketing plan
• statement summarizing the message to be conveyed
• timeline for mailings
• comprehensive list of the type of printed pieces
  to include in each mailing
• chronological outline of dates for targeted sales
  calls planned in response to and in conjunction
  with promotional mailings.

39
Marketing of Exhibit Space (continued)

• Resources of information
• International Association for Exposition
  Management (IAEM)
• International Exhibitors Association (IEA)
• Society of Independent Show Organizers (SISO)
• Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR)

40
Marketing of Exhibit Space (continued)

• Surveys
• Surveying potential exhibitors, past exhibitors,
  potential and past attendees, can help you
  capture precious information about the industry.
• Survey results will provide an analysis of the
  potential audience (i.e., demographics,
  product/service interests, job function,
  geographical, etc.)

41
Marketing of Exhibit Space (continued)

• Exhibit Advisory Committee
• Exhibitor Prospectus
• Prospective Exhibitor Database
• Selling Exhibit Space
• An example of the types of calls that might take
  priority for a first-time event follow...

42

• Leading companies of the industry
• Past exhibitors who have not renewed
• Competitors listed on exhibitor applications
• Companies
• who returned a mailer indicating their interest
• who requested information by telephone or mail
• who exhibit in related industry events
• who advertise in industry publications
• suggested by the Exhibitor Advisory Committee
• Supplier members of industry associations

43
Exhibitor Services

• The next over head lists information and forms
  contained an an Exhibitor Service Kit.

44
Exhibitor Services (continued)

• Pre-show/at-show promotion opportunities
• pre-registration lists, labels and disks for use
  in preparing preshow and postshow direct
  mailings, broadcast fax blitz, E-mail mailings,
  etc.
• exhibitor invitations (guest passes)
• a variety of sponsorship opportunities
• press information sheets
• show logo sheets
• participation in exposition-sponsored
  traffic-generating programs

45
Exhibitor Services (continued)

• Exhibitor and guest registration
• An exhibitor service kit should also contain
  information about exhibitor registration. Forms
  should be provided for registration of their
  exhibit staff, dealers, distributors and
  representatives.
• Housing/travel
• An exhibitor housing form should be developed,
  providing room rates and instructions for making
  room reservations. The form may be included in
  the exhibitor service kit or mailed to exhibitors
  under separate cover.

46
Exhibitor Services (continued)

• Director of exhibitors
• A key form to include in the exhibitor guide is
  the director listing form. Exhibitors should
  provide information about their company as they
  want it to appear in the directory.
• Exhibitor education
• Many expositions offer an exhibitor
  training/retraining workshop just prior to the
  opening of the exposition to gain tips and
  practical advice on how to work a booth
  effectively.

47
Producing the Exposition

• Operations
• Show management plans the exposition, but you
  need service contractors to make things happen.
  They implement the plan. Orders for services
  outlined in the exhibitor service kit are
  received in advance and at show site from
  exhibitors.
• One of the first duties a general contractor
  performs at show site is to mark the exhibit
  floor for placement booths. Pipe and drape is
  then installed. The registration area and show
  management offices are constructed.

48
Producing the Exposition (continued)

• Operations
• General contractors have a warehouse within the
  show city to accept freight shipments from
  exhibitors prior to installation date (advance
  receiving warehouse), which is moved into the
  exhibitors booths.
• Drayage refers to freight delivered over the dock
  and into the exhibitors booths. Drayage rates
  are published in the exhibitor service kit. The
  contractors then deliver the furnishings and
  other items ordered by exhibitors to their booths.