Gathering support
Another critical factor in launching a new show is obtaining support for the show. Bothassociations and independent show producers can enhance the potential success of theirshows by obtaining outside support -- from publications, institutions and groups of end-users. "Give them reasons and advantages to support the show," says Muir. "For example, end-user groups can help you identify how to do the right kind of promotion and where to do it, and how to bring those attendees into the show.

"You have to find out what an organization's needs are before you start offering themanything," Muir continues. "Needs differ from one group to another. For example, some associations are interested in getting additional promotion and publicity for their organization. They need to strengthen their position in the marketplace, and will look for ways to make people aware that they are in the marketplace. You can involve associations in the committee that will identify the parameters of the conference. You can provide opportunities for technical members of the associations to participate in the conference. Every promotional piece produced for the show -- which may end up being 500,000 pieces -- can have their names on it as co-sponsors. That's a tremendous amount of promotion! On site, being seen as part of a successful event will make them be seen as successful."

There also is the possibility of financial rewards -- perhaps a set fee or a percentage ofthe gross. Entrepreneurial show producers don't like to talk about the possibility thatthey might do this, but in some cases it is done. Muir cautions against the practice: "It's a bad idea to expect that you can give people money and they're going to be satisfied. Look at what they need at the moment to make them more successful. Identifying their needs can take some time. In a new relationship, you don't understand right away what those needs are. It may take a year, two years. Sometimes, you can destroy a relationship by giving money. The main point is that everyone should benefit from being involved in an exposition, in whatever way they need to benefit."

"We always involve industry leaders," says Ianuzzi. "The first thing we do once we knowwe're going to have a show is create an advisory board which will help us shape and mold the conference program. We also try to call on the companies that represent the largest buyers in the industry and ask for their input -- when to hold the show, where to hold it, what the needs of the buyers are -- so we can focus seminars and conferences for them."

Editorial support is another key factor; it establishes credibility for the event. Meetwith editors from trade publications if it's a trade show, consumer publications if it's aconsumer show, and ask for their support. Don't ignore the smaller publications. "Theycan sometimes be more helpful and effective than the big publications," says Phelps.

Setting a budget
Determining the budget for a new event is tough. Some basic costs -- facility rent,contractor services, administrative staff -- can be easily determined. If you've done your research, you should have a pretty good idea of how much exhibit space you need.

What if you've blocked out space for 500 booths and only 100 are sold? Withoutexception, experienced show managers have the same response: your up-front researchshould prevent such problems. "Your exhibit space should not come in less than yourprojection; if anything, it should come in more," says Phelps.

Many companies typically take a booth of a certain size for a specific type of show. "Most companies have a standard size booth that they take around the country," says Muir. "If you're planning a show in a particular industry, look at a show that's somewhat similar and see what size of exhibit space your potential exhibitors are taking. You can get a rough feel, then gauge, say, 75 percent or 50 percent of that the first time around."

Many variables affect what you can charge for exhibit space. Where are you holding theshow? What industry or type of consumer are you attracting? Are you having a seminar program? Is the seminar program contributing revenue to the event? In how many publications will you need to advertise, and what are the ad rates?

The biggest budget variable is promotion. Generally, costs are greater for promoting anew show, because you have to reach an audience that does not necessarily know you oryour capabilities. "If you're marketing an existing show, you can go back and say, 'Hereare the exhibitors who were in the show last year and here are the major buyers whoattended.' You don't have that capability with a new show," points out Jerry Schaefer,Executive Vice President of Thalheim Expositions. "There's some resistance on the partof potential exhibitors, and some apprehension on the part of buyers, who wonder if theyshould spend money to go to the show."

Ianuzzi concurs: "You have to develop an entirely new customer following. You have tospend much, much more on a new-show launch than on an ongoing show. You have tocreate new interest, new momentum. It's not as if you were giving a small push tosomething that is already in motion."

"With a new show, you have to sell the concept first," says Phelps. "When I develop thepromotion piece, I do it from the perspective of someone who has never heard about itbefore. If I were a dealer, what are the key points that would make me decide to go to this show? Often, you're asking someone to attend your show rather than an existing show. How is my show different? Why is my show better? These issues have to addressed for a first-year show."

Promotion costs vary from industry to industry. For example, an ad page in somemagazines in the computer industry sells for $40,000. In other industries, costs can beas low as $1,200 a page.

Promotion costs also vary according to how quickly the show has to get off the ground,and whether it's a consumer show that requires general advertising on radio and in localnewspapers or a trade show that can do very focused trade magazine advertising anddirect mail campaigns. Plus, as Phelps says: "You never know what's going to hit youdown the road. When it's three or four months before the show and you're not generating the pre-registration that you had anticipated, you need the flexibility to add to the promotion to get the kind of attendance you're looking for."

"One extreme," says Muir, "would be that you had started selling the show and it wasreally taking off, and you had 1,000 booths. You wouldn't spend a small amount forpromotion to attendees because you can't afford to end up having empty aisles. If you only have 100 booths, you don't have to spend as much money on promotion, because you don't have as many aisles to fill."

Some industries are more oriented than others toward using expositions as marketingtools. For instance, people in the computer industry perceive expositions as useful tools, making it easier to promote shows to both exhibitors and attendees. "People in thecomputer industry are very used to going to trade shows," says Muir. "The people arevery aggressive, very entrepreneurial. When they have an opportunity to go to anexposition, they hop on a plane, get there, do their business and go home."

At the other end of the scale are industries and people who still think of going to shows as an occasion for a week-long party. "They haven't changed the way they've been doingbusiness for 30 years," says Muir. "Now they're finding their costs are being cut allover the place. They're less likely to go to expositions nowadays, no matter how muchmoney you spend on promotion."

Making money
Some launches have been very profitable in their first year, some have broken even,some have lost money yet gone on in later years to become big money-makers. Althoughany show producer likes a show to make money from the beginning, this is not the maincriterion for judging a new event's success. "Our primary objective on a first-timeshow is to produce a quality event with a critical mass of exhibitors and a large qualified audience," says Mackler. "We are willing to invest in the first show, and sometimes in the second show, without profit being a primary concern. It's a secondary concern over making the event work for our customers."

"You can have something that makes money in the first year, but usually it can takeyears to make a profit," says Muir. "But that's not something that I think people shouldbuild into their psyche when launching a show. Every show is different. You can try ashow for one year and know it's not going to be successful no matter how much money you spend."

Sometimes a show flops because the market has changed or the needs of the marketplace have changed. Do you change the show to reflect this? It depends on how specific a show is, and how easily it can be altered. "Sometimes," says Muir, "it's better to cancel a show and re-launch it in a different way rather than to take the show and constantly try to maneuver it 20 degrees this way, 30 degrees the other way. You end up with a show that changes its directions and parameters so many times that people lose confidence in it."

Post-show feedback
Both formal and informal surveys should be conducted at a show's end to obtain feedbackfrom exhibitors, attendees, speakers, the media -- everyone connected with the show. "A survey at the end of the show is critical in terms of fine-tuning your concept, and to make sure that the show goes in the direction you want it to," says Phelps. "Are you getting too many big buyers and not enough from the cottage industry, or vice versa? Is your exhibitor base horizontal enough to maintain the attendees' interest level? Knowing the answers to these kinds of questions is essential."

"We always conduct a sales conversion study for our shows," says lanuzzi. "We hire athird-party research group to ask attendees questions about purchasing influence,budgets and other commercial issues. We also ask for a critique -- how would attendeesimprove the event? Are seminars in-line with their needs? What trends do they seedeveloping in the industry? People who don't listen to their vendors and attendeesusually don't have anything left to promote after a couple of years."

"In an order-writing show, success is based on the number of orders written at theshow," says Mackler. "In shows that are marketing events, you really can't determinehow much business is being conducted on the floor. The kind of feedback you're lookingfor is hearing exhibitors say, 'I saw the people I wanted to see, they were good quality,the numbers were acceptable.' If you held seminars, you want attendees to say, 'Thosewere good seminars, I learned a lot.'"

Has the field been saturated? Are there enough trade and consumer shows out there? Not as far as most show producers are concerned. They see new shows as a sign of the vitality, and, indeed, the future of the industry. According to Muir: "Continued growth in our industry will come from continued entrepreneurialism -- whether it's entrepreneurs in associations or publications or exposition companies. That growth, and that attitude of always wanting to expand and promote and push, will help to make ourindustry even more successful. The importance of launching new shows is not just for people to make more money, but to help expand, develop and educate everyone in the industry, and make the industry a stronger, healthier, better place for everyone."

Sidebar: Putting it all together

Over the past twelve years, the Food Marketing Institute's Supertmarket IndustryConvention has grown to fill more than 500,000 net square feet of exhibit space. Once primarily an equipment show, it now presents groceries, perishables, baked goods and other general merchandise. When FMI's annual survey of supermarket executives indicated that they wanted to see more extensive coverage of health and beauty aids (HBA) at the convention, the association identified and approached the largest HBA suppliers. The result made its debut at FMI's 1988 convention: an HBA Pavilion with representatives of 16 suppliers, and featuring an entertaining presentation by singers and dancers that explained what HBA can do for the retailer's bottom line.

"After a couple years, however, the exhibitors were telling us that they felt they weregetting lost in the big show," says Mike Muldoon, former Senior Vice President at FMIand now President of Convention Management Group in Fairfax, VA. "They felt they wouldbe much more successful in a smaller forum. At the same time, buyers for the category were saying that they wanted a show more specifically tuned to their needs.

"We did a feasibility study to answer several questions. What kind of facilities would beavailable for a smaller show? What kind of revenue would be generated to underwritethe costs of a stand-alone general merchandise, health and beauty aid show? What kind of price would we have to charge? How many square feet would we have to sell? What kind of audience would have to be attracted to have the kind of success needed to make the show worthwhile? And what would be the five-year growth process for that kind of a show? We said that by 1994 we'd like 100,000 square feet of exhibits and 5,000 attendees. Backing off, we decided that if we could sell 30,000 square feet of space, and attract 750 paid decision-makers to the first year's show, we would have the recipe for the kind of show that would appeal to our potential audience."

FMI rented the top level of the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston. They puttogether a committee of suppliers and retailers, and developed an educational programthat was then used in creating exhibit sales and attendance promotion materials. Finally, in October 1990, the FMI General Merchandise, Health & Beauty Care Conference and Exposition made its debut.

"The bottom line is that we sold 37,000 square feet of space, and attracted about 800paid decision-makers, plus all the trade press," says Muldoon. "The only up-front costswere the initial exhibit sales brochures. The cash flow from deposits on exhibit spacesales financed the attendance promotion, the education program, hall rent, show decor,buses and all the rest of it. FMI was prepared to underwrite the net costs of putting onthe first show. But the way it was structured, when the books were closed, it was abreak-even proposition."

Sidebar: Child's play

Early each year, toy dealers head to the American International Toy Fair to place theirorders for Christmas. The show is America's largest toy show, and the only trade showproduced by the Toy Manufacturers of America -- the association whose members accountfor 85 percent of the industry's domestic sales. The association periodically surveys itsmembers on the possible need for another show. But since 1904, when Toy Fair had itsbeginnings, the consensus has been that the annual event is sufficient.

Not that all is perfect in the industry. One problem that has plagued manufacturers iscyclical sales: about 60 percent of toy sales occur during the fourth quarter of the year.Can the association help its members promote consumer awareness for toys during other times of the year?

In an innovative move, the Toy Manufacturers of America is launching a consumer showcalled KidFest in Pittsburgh this May. Youngsters of all ages will have the opportunity toplay with toys from a broad range of manufacturers. No toys will be sold on thepremises, but coupons redeemable at local retailers will be distributed.

"Before we got too far along in our planning, we went out and obtained commitments from most of the major toy companies and several of the medium and smaller ones," explains Executive Director Charles Riotto.

Budgeting has perhaps been the most difficult process. "Even now [January], we still have many unanswered questions. We're making our best estimates, but budgeting absolutely needs to be flexible," says Riotto. The association has given exhibitors the highest possible cost for space, with the understanding that if costs can be brought in lower than quoted, adjustments will be made in exhibitor payments.

The association has gotten commitments from local media, which will participate in theevent, and it has also developed ties with local charity groups. Advance promotion, boththrough advertising and through local toy retailers, will be extensive.

The criteria for success will be whether any appreciable increase in toy sales is noticedin the Pittsburgh area in the months immediately following KidFest. "We couldconceivably have a show with tremendous attendance and with everyone having awonderful time, but whether we'll do it again will be based on whether the showaccomplishes our objective of promoting more toy sales," says Riotto.

If those mid-year sales do increase, the association will roll out the event in 1992 toseveral other major markets.