AFR Event Furnishings’ lighted furniture products, including lighted cubes and tables, have increased in sales over the past two years. Exhibitors need to do more to attract attention, and such products help them to do exactly that.
Opening just one year ago, the Lancaster County Convention Center has hosted over 800 events - a true sign of the trade show industry’s stability.
Nestled in the
heart of Pennsylvania, the center runs the full gamut of shows. Lancaster has wel- comed everything from consumer shows to a zoo show to a cheerleading show, which utilized almost the entire height of the center’s 30 foot ceilings. Josh Nowak of the Lancaster County Convention Center has seen a steady trend of one-to- two day association events and two-to- three day consumer events.
Nowak reaffirms, “There is no substitute for an in-person meeting.” With an integrated complex of the Marriott hotel and the convention center, the combined facilities allow for large meeting space and multi- ple, smaller breakout rooms.
Engineers
built the convention center so that tractor trailers can drive onto and load directly on the floor.
Nowak explains, “Nothing is the ‘norm’ anymore.
Planners must look for more
cost-effective ways to hold events.” Nowak sees his clients cutting costs on items like pipe and drape - not forging it, just select- ing different materials and using it when necessary.
Meeting planners also have
smaller departments; only two or three people plan large scale events instead of teams of people. Convention and hotel staff must help more to ensure success.
Nowak acknowledges, “We [convention staff] have to play a more active role in our clients’ event success... Their success is our success.”
Rebooking and word-of-mouth advertis- ing fuel the event industry. To assist plan- ners, Nowak’s team often points them in the right direction for ways to promote an event to the local community. Pointing out media and areas of local interest help planners immensely.
If planners have the right purpose, trade shows and conventions have limitless potential. Recently a television evangelist appeared at a two-day show and attracted 10,000 attendees during various sessions at the Lancaster County Convention Center.
34 November December 2010
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