Convention Insider (Conventions.net)

This year the Democratic National Convention is scheduled to take place at the Pepsi Center here in Denver.  The title of the post will be explained but we have to visit the sports page of the newspaper.  The Pepsi Center plays host to the Denver Nuggets and the Colorado Avalanche, our basketball and hockey teams.

This year both of those teams have made the playoffs.  As of this writing however, the Denver Nuggets have been swept in 4 games and the Colorado Avalanche are down 3 games to none and looking like they will be swept and eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs.  This is the reason the Pepsi Center will be unused.

Some facts about the facility that will be the location of this year’s DNC.  The Pepsi Center in Denver was built in about 21 months and cost $180M in private funding.  The building sits on 45 acres and is 675,000 square feet.  During the Democratic National Convention the Pepsi Center will handle approximately 21,000 people or more.  The problem I see now is that with the Nuggets eliminated from the playoffs and the Colorado Avalanche on their way out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the building will be quiet and vacant for a while.  Yes, if that does sound like sour grapes, it’s because I am very disappointed!

I have been spending a lot of time lately speaking to and interviewing some of the leaders in our industry of conventions and trade shows and I will be doing a series of posts to reveal the results of those interviews and discussions.  One of the things that seems to occur to me after speaking to these industry leaders is that there seems to be a shift in what is the norm in trade shows and conventions and how they are being handled.  I have heard tell of new technologies being used, new players in the old world of how things were done and show managers that are seeking new ways to plan events and shows.  One thing is certain, there will be some benefit to the show exhibitors and attendees based on the changes I have seen in little areas.  Stay tuned for more information as I get all my notes together and get my posts completed.

If you would like to be featured as a thought leader in the industry or if you are doing things in the convention or trade show industry that you feel is revolutionizing the way we do business, please feel free to drop us a line or use the contact section to let us know about you.  I’ll be contacting many others to find ways to reveal what is happening in the world we live in.

I have been talking about all kinds of different places for trade shows and conventions here at Convention Insider, and most, if not all, have been about convention centers right here in the United States.  There are plenty of other locations around the world that are also great places for conventions or trade shows and other events. 

One of the places I have on my places I would like to visit before I die is Sydney, Australia.  I figured I would start there as a place to visit for a convention center or trade show location.  Of course, since we are headed down under the proper spelling here is “centre”. The convention center is the largest of its kind on the continent and holds more than 600 events throughout the year.  Their brochure goes on to describe the location:

As Australia’s largest and premier venue for conferences, exhibitions and special events, the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre has played host to some of the world’s top companies and international associations.

Superbly located on the waterfront in Sydney’s most popular visitor precinct, Darling Harbour, the venue is renowned for its flexibility, which enables it to manage events of any size and complexity.

This convention center hosts apparently a very large event in the Australian International Motor Show which has about 300,000 attendees and another large event event called the Sydney International Boat Show.  This makes sense because they are right on the Darling Harbour, or as we say here in the US, “harbor”.

[Photo via adactio]

Growing up as a young boy on the western slope of Colorado we didn’t have much for television.  In fact I think we had a local farm report at 6:00 in the morning and part of the Dick Van Dyke show at about 6:00 in the evening.  It must have been related to the satellite that made it’s way around the planet every twelve hours.  Since I didn’t get the same chance to watch TV as other kids my age, I got into comic books.  I loved sitting and looking at the stories, and later when I was old enough to read actually reading the stories.

I have been waiting for a comic book convention to come to town that I can attend, but it does not look like that will happen anytime soon but I could travel out to San Diego, California for Comic-Con International.  The event is set to take place July 24-27, 2008 at the San Diego Convention Center.  This is the 39th year for the event and if it has the same success it had in 2007, the event will see 125,000 attendees.  The event was sold out last year and they fully expect to see that happen again in 2008.  They do not sell passes for the event on site so you must register online.

One of the things that caught my attention with this event was their use of a blog to help attendees with their questions and problems with getting a place to stay while in San Diego.  The blog relates:

In 2007, Comic-Con International had 125,000 attendees. We realize the challenges related to an event of this size. One of the most challenging aspects of attending Comic-Con is trying to reserve a hotel room. Each year, we open hotel reservations only to have them initially sell out in a matter of hours. And while rooms almost always are added or become available due to cancellations, the simple fact of the matter is there are not enough hotel rooms in San Diego for everyone who wants to attend Comic-Con.

This seems to be a real problem, and I really wonder why they continue to have the event in San Diego when apparently the event has outgrown the host city.  A blog is a big help to communicate to your attendees, but you would think they would address the problems of the lack of hotel accommodations with a different location or some other solution.  Good luck if you have not booked your room for this convention.

I have been a bit under the weather this week and as a result I have had a chance to lay in bed and watch daytime TV.  Not that everyday drama laden stuff you get from the soaps, but the drama laden everyday stuff you get from watching boys get paid lots of money to play a sport they love.  Of course, I am talking about the NFL and the upcoming NFL draft.  I can remember as a boy running to the paper to see a list of who the Broncos (I admit I am a hometown sports fan) drafted in the NFL draft.  That was back when I followed what was happening in college with all of my favorite players as well.  Perhaps I’m dating myself but I remembered wanting to grow up to play like one of my favorites, John Cappelletti (Google it).

The NFL Draft now has taken on a whole new meaning for kids (yes I include myself in that category to this day) as they watch their favorites from college make it to the next level and they get to see who is the latest addition to their favorite professional team in real time.  We get to see all the cool stuff like war rooms, owners on the phone, players at home or in studio, highlights and all the other stuff that makes this a media frenzy, all live and in person from our own armchairs.  This spectacle needs to be held somewhere and in fact its not much different than putting on a large trade show or convention.

This year’s event is being broadcast live from New York City from the Radio City Music Hall.  What I think is super cool however is that the Radio City Music Hall has its own blog called The Monitor.  You should definitely check it out for New York City latest in what is happening.  The blog also covers other event locations like Madison Square Gardens.

The RCMH is hosting the event for the third year now and if you are lucky, its free:

NFL Draft Fan Central will be open to all fans on Saturday, April 26 from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on 51st Street between 6th and 7th Avenues. NFL Draft Fan Central is a free event and will feature interactive football activities, Giants and Jets player autograph signings and live coverage of the 2008 NFL Draft on the NFL Network big screen.

Held in New York City since 1965, the NFL Draft will be televised nationally by NFL Network and ESPN. This is the third consecutive year that the Draft will be held at Radio City Music Hall.

You can bet that this is not the same as a trade show or convention we talk about here much of the time, but many of the same types of vendors and suppliers we feature here will be providing services there.  How can RCMH afford such extravagance?  Are you kidding?  The Dolphins just spent $30M on a kid out of college that has not showed up for a day of work yet.  I’ll let you decide who gets the check.

I was thinking of the amount of cleaning a stay at home dad like myself does in a week and it made me begin to think of hiring some help to get the work done.  I think I would probably have to have the big boss at Conventions.net to give me a little raise for that to be a reality.  It was time to search out a maid convention or trade show. 

The Association of Residential Cleaning Services International held its most recent annual trade show October 22-26, 2007 in Orlando, Florida at the Orange County Convention Center.  The convention was held in conjunction with the ISSA or also known as The Worldwide Cleaning Industry Association. 

This year the event is to be held September 8-11, 2008.  The event will be held at the ever popular Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.  As with most things in Las Vegas, you can’t hold an event without having an exciting show and this event is no different.   The most interesting feature of the show that makes me actually want to go and see the convention this year is one of its keynote speakers.  None other than a childhood favorite of mine, Bill Cosby.  Or I guess I should refer to him as Dr. Bill Cosby as they do in the program details.   Dr. Cosby is scheduled to appear on September 10, 2008, at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel (adjacent to the Las Vegas Convention Center) in the Barron Room.  This is something I have not yet seen other trade associations do much of and that is to get some decent talent to address the attendees.  The good doctor will be addressing convention attendees according to the program:

Listen as Dr. Cosby humorously explains that “You better love what you do, otherwise it sure won’t love you!” He’ll help you ponder what the world would be like without your job and why more people should focus on the personal side of business, especially in the cleaning industry.

I would pay the price of attendance just to get a chance to see this legend in person.  I commend the event planners and would love to see more of this type of thing done at other events!

It’s only 6:30 a.m. where I am and I am already having a case of “The Mondays”.  How is that possible?  Actually I have already been working for 3 hours.  Not because I woke at 3:00 a.m to get an early start, but because of the time I spent with my family this weekend I had a lot of email to look at and before I knew it I had stayed up a little past my bed time and have already had a few hours of work on this Monday morning.  I decided to get a few hours sleep.  I don’t have the greatest of track records when starting my day that way, but I have never had a case of the Monday’s like these folks.  Enjoy your Monday knowing that it could be worse.

On this day in the United States, we all rush out to get that tax return in the mail, or I guess in this day and age we rush to the computer to file it electronically over the Internet.  Like every other holiday, I try to mix in a little celebration of the day.  Today, all I could think of was death and taxes.  You know the old saw about some things being certain and of those, most prevalent are death and taxes.  This lead me to think about what convention or trade show might be out there that deals with issues of death and taxes. 

You might think a death convention might be a little morbid, and I must say the name does not stick too well with me, but how about a mortuary or other type convention or trade show?  My company has even help establish a funeral blog, so I know they must have a convention.  As you know, all industries have their own trade show and the people at the National Funeral Directors Association are no different.  The NFDA had its national convention in 2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada at the and in 2008, the convention is scheduled in October in Orlando, Florida.

Tax professionals around the US are operating on no sleep and are drinking coffee and energy drinks to get through to midnight when the deadline arrives.  They will be happy to know that they can relax at their national convention this summer in Atlanta, Georgia.  The conference is set to take place at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, July 7-10, 2008.

To all of the tax professionals out there, good luck today with your deadlines.  To the rest of you out there doing your own taxes, you have a little time left if you want to procrastinate a little bit longer, say about 12 hours.

Tomorrow marks the new season of Deadliest Catch, a Discovery show that talks about the dangers of commercial fishing off the coast of Alaska.  I have been following with interest on this show because of the drama that unfolds to put that snow crab and king crab on my plate that I love so much.  They refer to the crab catches as “gold”, and for good reason given the amount of money they stand to make with a good harvest of crab in Alaska.  Naturally, since I was interested in this I decided to see if there was a commercial fishing convention or trade show out there for these dangerous employees to enjoy during the off season.  What I thought would be a very fancy trade show and convention turned out to be a event held not in Vegas or Orlando or New York City, but on the island of Kodiak in nothing other than the local High School.

Comfish Alaska 2008, was recently held last month at the Kodiak High School Auditorium.  I can only assume they used the event location during the time when the students are out for Spring Break.  The event celebrated its 29th year and has lots of interesting vendors listed for the event, including of course, the City of Kodiak and other local businesses and sponsors.

As I expected, right in the beginning of the events was the presentation about sinking ships:

Flooding Control: Knowledge & Tools to Prevent Sinking – Hands on training and videos by the nationally acclaimed AK Marine Safety Education Association. Don’t go down with the ship! Presenter: Steven Campbell, AMSEA/Kodiak

Obviously, the Deadliest Catch was right along these lines.  Other seminars talk about Exxon Valdez lawsuit updates and the value of the King Crab market.  All things that are important to the Captains and crews of the fishing industry.  I suppose they will be holding this again next year for their 30th show at the same location.  I guess a blue collar job such as commercial fishing needs just four walls and a roof for their trade show.  I would love to attend just to see what the event is like, I’ll bring the melted butter!

Pardon the alliteration with the title there, but I was running through that title in my head as I watched the news over the weekend.  I noticed that Frontier Airlines, a company that means a lot to us here in the Denver area for jobs and cheap fares, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  In addition to that announcement, American Airlines last week had to cancel more than 3300 flights for their planes to be reinspected by authorities. This caused many to have their travel plans ruined and having to wait in long lines to get to their destination.

The above are not the only airlines that are in the news recently as we here about merger talks between Delta and Northwest heat up.  It may not make travel more difficult, but it may limit choices as it eliminates one more carrier.  It seems that the talks may be stalled however as pilots scramble for seniority in the newly formed company.  This may stall the talks of the merger.

I think we will begin to see this more and more as the economy begins to effect our travel.  That and the fact that we will begin to see travel doomed by higher gas prices as oil reaches record highs and companies raise prices continually, making it tougher and tougher to get from point A to point B, be it plane, train or automobile.

As we enter the summer months and people begin to take more vacations as their children are home for summer vacation, we will see a tightening of fares and more problems with travel.  Make sure if your are an event planner you think of these ramifications of travel when picking a location for your next event.  Make sure it is a hub for some airlines or that there is easy access to the city of choice.  It may take time for people to travel this year to your trade show so take it into account.