Open to the Public

Admitting the public to your trade show can pay off if you're prepared

By Michael Flynn and Linda Kephart Flynn

When their trade shows suffer declining exhibitors, attendees or net square footage, most show managers look to industry members and ask, "What's wrong, and what can we do about it?" Faced with those grim circumstances, however, the Consumer Electronics Group already knew part of the answer -- invite the public.

Without question, few phrases strike more fear into the hearts of trade show managers. Such utterances conjure up images of massive advertising expenses, rattled exhibitors and show floor traffic patterns that make Times Square look like a Sunday drive in the country. But CEG, a division of the Washington-based Electronic Industries Association, decided the extra work could help improve its show and reduce the problem of non-exhibitors displaying products outside the show floor.

CEG's International Summer Consumer Electronics Show, held in Chicago's McCormick Place, had seen decreases in the number of exhibitors, net square feet and attendees since 1969. In fact, between '90 and '91, the event's space dropped nearly 95,000 square feet to 581,016 square feet, according to Trade Show Week's Trade Show Data Book. The number of exhibitors also fell, and although the attendee count actually increased slightly, a special CEG task force recommended the public be invited to the '92 Summer show.

The immediate results, from the attendance perspective, were astounding. In addition to the 51,850 trade attendees participating in '92, another 98,720 consumers also came through the doors. That means that more than 65 percent of the total crowd were public attendees. "It was very good for our industry to have the exposure to the end users," says Sam Lippman, Staff Vice President at CEG. "And the public loved all the new equipment, video games and new technology. One of our exit interviewees said, 'This is better than Disneyland!'"

Trade shows walk a fine line when admitting the public, however. Despite '92's attendee success, the exhibitor and square footage numbers continued to fall. By 1993, CEG also began to yield to exhibitor grumbling and limited the previous year's day-and-a-half public season to a single day. Consumer promotional efforts were scaled back, and the public attendance fell to 37,700. Finally, this year CEG decided to close the Summer show to the public, and the entire event has been canceled for 1995 in favor of the Winter CES, which continues to expand each January in Las Vegas.

"Inviting the public was an idea we tried, executed very successfully for two years, then found the market conditions would no longer bear," Lippman says.

The fact remains, however, that the public can play a strong role in many different kinds of trade shows -- if the show manager knows what to expect, how to promote it and how to handle the inevitable challenges that surface from the hybrid event. That means handling elements such as consumer advertising and promotions, general ticket sales, entertainment, scheduling, crowd control and on-site services, among others. A successful combination crowd might require a larger show space. Exhibitors, practiced in selling to the industry, could need coaching to keep from fumbling when faced with public show attendees' different demands.

But why set yourself up for all that extra work in the first place? Those who've tried it, say going public can: inject new life and enthusiasm in a mature industry or event, pump up attendance figures to solidify longstanding exhibitors and attract new ones, create a vital interplay between industry members and their ultimate buyers, attract national and international media attention for invaluable exposure, and improve the movement of goods from manufacturers to consumers, among others.

"Opening our doors has been a tremendous success," says Mel Schlitt, Vice President of Marketing for Chicago's Merchandise Mart Properties, which produces the combined NeoCon and The Buildings Show, billed as the World's Fair for Facilities Planning, Design and Management. "For us, it's been the best way to bring viable end users to the manufacturers."

NeoCon's move toward public involvement has been gradual. Started in 1969 as an office furniture dealer's show, it began to welcome interior designers and architects by the mid-'70s. A decade later, the industry shifted again when furniture manufacturers began selling to corporate facility managers. That group shrank in the early '90s as demand for corporate office space declined, and the present focus is on owners of small- and medium-sized companies, who make their own furniture-buying decisions.

"We're open to the public now, in the sense that we're targeting the end user, the person who will actually use our exhibitors' products in his or her office space," Schlitt explains. "They have to be people interested in buying what our exhibitors sell."

Besides putting more buyers and sellers together, NeoCon's attendance increases by welcoming the public. From its peak of 50,000 attendees in 1985, the show had dropped to 30,000 before NeoCon invited the public this year. "By shifting, we've gotten the attendance up to 35,000, and 25 percent of those are end users," Schlitt says.

Furniture also proved attractive to the public at the annual Canada's Home Furnishing Market in Toronto and its sister event, the Montreal Furniture Market. For nearly a decade, both four-day trade shows included public sessions before the practice was temporarily suspended two years ago. "We invited the public to raise interest in buying furniture, for more consumer exposure to the industry and for the media attention," explains Line Dionne, Director of Exhibitions for the Quebec Furniture Manufacturer's Association. "But the recession has hit the industry, and business is very tough right now. When it's back up to speed, we'll offer public days again."

Each Canadian show averaged about 5,000 public visitors, who attended over a two-day period. "Any day was good; we've done it at the beginning, the middle and the end of the show," says Dionne. "It's fun to have them because they're interested. They knew more about furniture and the manufacturers than we thought."

When it comes to inviting the public, perhaps the biggest challenge is how to cost-effectively advertise the event. Be warned -- the solution will vary with your industry and your audience. First, you must determine what segment of the general public you need to reach. Is it office furniture buyers or computer users, flying enthusiasts or fireplace owners? Once you decide the demographics of who those potential attendees are, find the very best ways to reach them. The list is long: television, direct mail, newspapers, radio, magazines, on-line services. Make certain that your message -- and the vehicle that carries it -- can deliver those who will do your show the most good.

When CEG drew nearly 100,000 to its electronics show, for example, most were responding to a nationwide marketing effort. "We created an image campaign using what we call the 'Electronic Man,'" explains Patti McNeill, Manager of Communications. "We did TV, radio, print and billboard advertising -- that Electronic Man was everywhere."

Even with such a massive campaign, CEG found that the majority of its public audience came from the Chicago area. "Despite extensive national promotions," Lippman says, "we learned that a consumer event is a local event. We spent a considerable amount of money to advertise outside this market, but in the end they came from here."

NeoCon organizers took a more selective approach to inviting office furniture buyers. They found they needed to target the event to four groups: manufacturers reps, architects and interior designers, dealers and installers, and end users. "Although they're similar, the motivations and selling points were different for each," Schlitt says. "We did three different targeted mailings and seemed to get good response from each group."

Such advertising comes at a price. Mike Fisher, Executive Director of the National Association of Consumer Shows, says the show manager of a "good-sized show" held in a city the size of Seattle or Indianapolis, for instance, would probably spend $120,000 to $150,000 on promotions. "It would take three to four years of spending on a consistent basis to develop the crowd," he says. "A trade show, on the other hand, has an audience you can easily identify. You mail to them and they come, so it's a lot less expensive to draw your attendees."

Besides advertising differences, trade show managers who decide to include the public must be ready and willing to help their exhibitors make the transition. "We had a whole range of reactions to having consumers at our shows," Dionne says. "Some were crazy about having them there; others would just close their booths and leave. We would explain that it's the consumers who ultimately buy the furniture, but they would say, 'The retailers are my customers.'"

To head off similar problems with its electronics industry participants, CEG sponsored an extensive exhibitor education process. The training included half-day seminars held in Newark, NJ; New York; Chicago; and Los Angeles. Over a nine-month period, the producer printed at least 100 pages of newsletters, brochures, alerts and booklets. And consultants were available to answer specific questions from individual exhibitors. "We were teaching them how to create the push-pull of a consumer exchange," says Lippman. "A trade show creates the push -- pushing to the dealers. The pull is to pull the consumer to the dealer after the show."

Despite such challenges, trade show managers will continue to consider public participation in their events. Occasionally, the consumer connection may even bring unexpected success and new direction. Such was the case for NeoCon. Thanks to feedback from its end users this year, the show will incorporate an existing telecommunications and wireless communications show, formerly operated by 14 associations, into its event.

"We're adding this because the end users who came to the show said they needed to know more about those areas when they're setting up their offices," Schlitt says. "The new element should allow us to attract an additional 5,000 attendees. Our goal has been to get our attendance back up, and it looks like opening our doors will be the way to do it."