Convention Insider (Conventions.net)

I apologize for the scarcity of posts last week as I had a really bad bug that had me wishing that I might be at an end for this world. Luckily, the antibiotics have now kicked in and my lungs are back in my chest and the golf balls I swallowed are no longer cutting off my air supply. In case you haven’t figured it out I had strep and bronchitis and was my whimpering self.

Now that I have had a chance to get back in the saddle, I found a cool blog that is offering to give a code for all of you travel enthusiasts that want to attend a free pass at the Adventure Travel Expo. All you have to do is leave a link of your travel website or of your travel blog and you can get a pass for the expo.

The expo is going to take place at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center on September 13-14, 2008. The web site explains the overview of the event:

The event gathers hundreds of captivating destinations from exotic India to captivating Cayman and exciting, activities: a huge scuba pool, kayak demonstrations, an aerial zip line, a rope adventure course, cultural performers and much more. ATE is THE place to kick off the winter blahs and plan that ultimate vacation.

Sounds like a great event and some dynamite speakers are slated to talk about their trade. This from the press release:

Sponsored by the area’s leading newspapers, The Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, organizers will leverage the very lucrative Seattle-Tacoma DMA. ”Seattle is one of the largest media markets in the country with a high income population that is very involved with outdoor and leisure activities,” stated John Golicz, Unicomm’s CEO. “This is a great opportunity for travel marketers to expand market share in Seattle which increasingly serves as a main gateway to the Asia/Pacific region and Canada as well as an emerging market for the Caribbean and Latin America.“

I’ll be in Seattle next week myself giving a presentation and I’ll hopefully get to report from the area and see if I can get an interview with someone perhaps at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center.

I am an avid BBQ fanatic. In fact the title of this post is a bit misleading given the fact that I often barbecue here in Colorado while it is snowing. I actually had them make sure I had a gas line in the perfect spot when I had

my home built so that I could get to my grill quickly and use it often. Grilling is a part of our everyday life. As we made dinner I was inspired to check out the National BBQ Association and find out where they

would be holding their annual convention. Turns out they are headed to Texas!

The trade show is scheduled to take place in Austin, Texas on February 17-21, 2009. The theme for the event is awesome:

“BBQ, Brews and Blues in the Heart of Texas”

The theme makes me want to register today!

The City of Austin is the perfect place for the event, not only because of the fact that when you think Texas you think BBQ and in fact Austin is the Capital of Texas BBQ, but the City of Austin is known for its music scene and its famous night life. I just spent a few days in Austin in the Spring this year and I think it is the perfect location for the event.

One of the bigger stories here in the Denver area where I am from is the fact that the Denver Host Committee came up more than $10 Million short of their goals for raising money for the Democratic National Convention which is to be held here in Denver on August 25. The organizers had until June 16 to come up with the funds for the convention and fell quite short. They are talking about some of the events that were scheduled will be cancelled and the government officials here are all scrambling to see how they can figure out how to come up with the funds required.

Many are saying that the drawn out process of determining the Democratic nominee is the cause as their backers are still waiting to see if they will put their money into the pot. Others are saying that the big Clinton money making machine that has provided them with their ability to raise funds is not in the race any longer and therefor withholding funds. One thing is certain, this does not bode well for the Dems as they begin to figure out how to make a big splash here in Denver in about 10 weeks.

I have been to some pretty cool places to attend conferences, conventions, trade shows and events. One of the places I have never been is Hawaii. I was wondering why none of my conventions or trade shows have ever been held in the 50th state and I suppose it has to do with the logistics of having an event that far into the Pacific. The travel the cost and everything else that might be associated with planning an event to be held there may prove too difficult. I decided to take a look at the Hawaii Convention Center and see for myself.

The Hawaii Convention Center was opened in 1998 at a cost of $350 Million. It brings together all the real culture of the Hawaiian Islands. A release provided by the center states it nicely:

From a distance, the Hawai`i Convention Center is awe inspiring with its airy, glass-walled lobby featuring a 70-foot misting waterfall. The foyer is crowned with canvas canopies, reminiscent of ocean white caps and the sails of voyaging canoes. A grand exterior staircase descends to the Ala Wai Promenade. More than 60 percent of the center is landscaped, including an award-winning, 2.5-acre rooftop garden with flowing ponds and tropical flowers.

I would not expect anything different from a tropical paradise such as Hawaii. It does seem that they have difficulty in getting meeting and event planners to choose their facility but they give the top 10 reasons why they should be considered for an event. They have an uphill battle with the prices of air fare to Hawaii, but they seem to offset that cost with some lower pricing than their competitors. The Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau talks about the return on investing in an event held in Hawaii:

“As much as anything, these past few years have amplified Hawai‘i’s value as a meetings destination. Clients have found that holding meetings in the islands consistently provides a proven return on investment and that we satisfy their objectives while staying within budget,” said Michael Murray, CMP, CMM, CASE, vice president of sales and marketing for HVCB’s CMI division.

Murray sums it up nicely about the Hawaiian experience:

“Groups and incentives love to come here. Associations consistently see attendance exceed expectations, and we’re the number one destination for incentives. The net result is that attendees return home refreshed and reinvigorated. Add it all together and it’s easy to see why Hawai‘i is the ‘ultimate global gathering place’ for business meetings.”

I would love to attend a meeting, or event in Hawaii to test that theory of feeling refreshed and reinvigorated. If you are planning an event there and need someone to report there about the experience of your show drop me a line. I still owe my wife that Hawaiian honeymoon.

As I traveled to Orlando a couple of weeks ago, I could see a number of places getting a face lift. Some of the resorts and attractions were expanding and getting new themes, and now it seems as though the Orange County Convention Center is also slated for a new look and feel. Trade Show Week is reporting that the convention center is expanding by 80 acres that are adjacent to their facility. It is indicated in the report that The Peabody Orlando, the OCCC, The Hilton Orlando, Rosen Hotels & Resorts and Universal City Property Management are all working together on the project. The report goes on to state:

…the plan so far includes a 1,400-room hotel – with the brand to be announced this summer – plus attractions, entertainment, retail and a large outdoor entertainment area that will be connected via a waterway concept to create “additional venues, spaces for entertainment and show performances.” The development will be north of the OCCC’s North/South Building and connected to it by pedestrian bridges.

It’s just the latest proposed development for the area surrounding the convention center. The Hilton Orlando, which broke ground last year, will be the first hotel connected directly to the OCCC by pedestrian bridge when it opens next summer on the east side of the North/South Building.

This is a trend I think that is taking place among most of the competitive convention centers vying for that event or trade show by expanding their facilities that are giving more than just space and management of the event. The convention centers are making it more of an experience for the attendees by making it easier for hotel arrangements and also giving them exciting things to do while not attending conferences or meetings. I think they are trying to keep up with the likes of Gaylord Entertainment that has been selling this business plan from the beginning. The all-in-one experience seems to be the new idea for facilities looking to get ahead.

I was just reading through Trade Show Week about the difficulty had by a trade show in Alberta, Canada called Rig Expo 2008. Apparently this show did not adhere to the build it and they will come idea. Approximately 60 exhibitors signed up to be a part of the expo that concentrates on the oil field industry. There were plenty of exhibitors but someone forgot to tell the attendees to show up. There were a number of reasons given for the lack of attendance at the show, but that does not take the sting out of the lost investment. The head of the show had anticipated 3,000 to 4,000 attendees and apparently that number shrunk to about 22 attendees in a four hour period. Ouch.

Unfortunately not a lot can be done for the people that paid that $2,500 price tag for a 10′ x 10′ booth. There really are no guarantees. Show organizer Paul Pearson said just this as his answer to the issue of paying back exhibitors:

“We rented the building, we advertised the show, we did everything we could,” he added. “You pay your money and take your chances.”

I’m trying to wrap my mind around the idea that the show organizers did not have a better idea of attendance. They apparently had no pre-sold tickets and had no idea if anyone would show up for the event. Something tells me that many exhibitors won’t be taking chances on this show in the future. I’m sure many of the exhibitors are now calling this the Rigged Expo.

How do you protect your investment? Go with an established show and if the show is not an established trade show, make sure that the people behind it have some good credentials. In this instance it looks as though many of the exhibitors believed the show to be a good one for them invest in and attend.

Michael Hart, Editor-in-Chief at Trade Show Week also touched upon this same problem in his blog post titled “Living With Green Fatigue” as he describes:

The show manager of this launch, designed to market – and stop me if you’ve heard this one before – eco-friendly products and services, had optimistically projected 250 exhibitors and 2,000 attendees.

Our contributing editor Lisa Plummer counted 40 booths and, while the show’s manager claimed he had 350 pre-registered attendees, Lisa said there may have been 15 at the most on the showfloor during the time she was there.

Another example of a show that had some lofty numbers projected and came nowhere near those projections. Those exhibitors also must have felt the sting of not having attendees to show their wares. Hart seems to imply that the reason for the poor attendance is the fact that there are far too many “green” type trade shows on the market. If that is the case, then I suppose it is the fault of the exhibitor for making a bad choice of shows. That can be a hard pill to swallow, and makes it tough for new trade shows to get the establishment they need to get sponsors and exhibitors.

Trade Show Week has put out its list of the 100 most influential people in the industry. As I look through the list of names if becomes apparent I am not there. Actually, I never expected to see my name, but what I did expect is to see some of the names of the people we talk about here and I did see a few, like Colin Reed of Gaylord Entertainment, Jim Rooney at the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority and Paul Ashley at Smart City, but I think we need to reach out and get more interviews from this diverse list.

In the coming weeks I think I will be trying to reach out to these influencers to see if we can get them to come on here and give out some of their words of wisdom and let us know what is happening in the industry. If you are on the list and here reading, give us a shout out on the contact form. We’ll make you a featured guest!

In the meantime, we will continue to try to bring you news about our industry, will provide you with the best resource site on the Internet for meeting planners, convention planners and industry people. Don’t forget to head on over to Conventions.net and tell them I sent you! I’ll get my name on that list yet.

I was recently discussing the popularity of anime with a friend. For those that don’t know this is an art form that is used in animation. It has grown astronomically in the world and no less here in the US. I wanted to find out if they have any convention or trade show in this industry and come to find out they more than just a few of these anime conventions.

AnimeCons.com has a huge list of events that they track on their site. Apparently one of the largest anime trade shows is Anime Expo 2008 which is to be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center on July 3-6, 2008. The event is described in their own words:

Anime Expo®, the nation’s largest anime/manga convention, serves to foster trade, commerce and the interests of the general public and animation/ comics industry. This event serves as a key meeting place for the general public to express their interest and explore various aspects of anime/manga, as well as for members of the industry to conduct business.

The Los Angeles Convention Center is owned and operated by the City of Los Angeles and is located on 54 acres of land which is about 40 football fields. The facility has 867,00 square feet of exhibit hall and meeting room space, and 5,600 parking spaces. It seems to have enough room for this event and more. Meeting and event planners can check out their event planning guide that has 65 pages of everything from electrical services to fog machines.

I just recently came home from a convention and like other times, I pull out my suitcase and go through my receipts, my clothes and shoes and other things I need to wash and put away, and finally I go through the giveaways, or the swag I received from the event. I had a pen, a canvas bag, some sticky notes and other small items that had various company logos and branding. I always look through these things and put the pens in that drawer in my desk, use those note pads constantly, and have that cool toy that my kids fight over. Where do these things come from anyway?

I had a chance to sit down and talk with a company that does just that–promotional products for your convention or trade show. A one stop shop called MARCO Promotional Products.

Ken Arch, President of MARCO Promotional Products is a second generation leader in the company started by his father in 1964. Ken is pictured on the right with company CEO Dick Nelson. Nelson also comes from a company that was started by his own father. The company now has 50+ employees and has two locations to serve their customers.

I spoke with Ken Arch about some of the things that his company is doing and how they are providing products and services to convention and trade show planners. It was a simple idea for Ken as he indicated, “We have been in business a long time and we provide the best products, the best prices, and the best service.” After speaking to Ken for a while it was clear that their company could back up that charge. They truly want to make it easy for companies or the individual to come away with the best of the best in a promotional product. They offer free samples to try before you buy, free art preparation which in most other cases is a charge you will incur, and they can offer 24 hour service. Not only that , they provide real people to speak to when you need to hear a friendly voice on the other end of the phone.

As I wandered around their website I noticed that they too are catering to the ever popular “Green Movement” and providing promotional products that are eco-friendly. In fact, they also provide a glossary of terms to help guide people in the right direction.

MARCO Promotional Products has a wide array of clients and customers from the very large non-profit organizations, to the large corporate customer, to the very small individual with a small order. They also offer very competitive prices and back that with what Ken told me was “double the difference lowest guarantee”, which he explained as ” if you find a lower price we will double the refund to you.” They also have a program for those that have orders not needed to be filled for 60-90 days called their Asia Direct program. This allows MARCO to deal direct with the manufacturer for you in getting you the best price, often times Ken indicated as a “25%-30% savings.”

Right now for Convention Insider readers and those that visit the site at Conventions.net, MARCO Promotional Products is offering a great savings, a $100 savings on a purchase of $300 or more. These details can be found on their site as well. If you are a convention planner, meeting or event planner, you can take advantage of this offer and start saving money on your next event. MARCO will guarantee your savings.

The next time you find yourself pouring through the swag after your next trade show or convention, think about where those materials came from and think about the process it took to get you that item, chances are it came from a company like MARCO Promotional Products! Thank you Mr. Arch for taking time to speak with me and keep up the good work.

This year has seen more travel than in years past for me and it seems that I am getting more and more speaking engagements and have been attending more conferences as well. This week I wrapped up a conference on Tuesday and traveled all day yesterday to get back home only to find out I needed to make travel arrangements again for early next month. I just finished compiling my receipts and the shock was a little high on the price of traveling.

I am not a large corporation that has its own travel department, and in fact I am not even good at trying to earn miles like many of my peers. I am the guy that waits until the last minute and pays the highest possible amount for hotels, cars, and air fares.

I noticed recently that many companies are making arrangements to limit the travel for all of their employees. Even large companies that somehow find ways to fund any travel their employees want. Basically, the price of fuel is beginning to take its toll on employee travel. This is going to have a direct impact on conventions and trade shows in the future. Your boss is not going to allow you to attend an event across the country as the price of flying will be too high to allow it as part of the budget. I hope conventions can make adjustments to this phenomena. In the meantime, don’t procrastinate like I do making travel plans. The sooner you make the plans the better. Fuel prices don’t look to be going down any time soon.