Such shows and conventions boost the economy.
Those attendees most likely
stayed at a hotel and ate lunch at a local restaurant in between shopping and buy- ing local goods.
Nowak has seen first hand the continued momentum and now traction the Lancaster Convention Center has in the eye of the community. By offering 90,000 square feet of event space, the center brings more people to the area and pro- motes business.
Other facilities, like the Morgantown
Event Center in West Virginia, hope for the same success. Community planners in Morgantown understand the success of trade shows and hope their new event center will attract even more business to this growing area.
Planners, exhibitors, venues, communities and vendors have greater incentive to make these larger events work.
Trade
shows drive revenue across the board. Russel Kice national sales manager for the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, observes that today are “spending smarter.”
planners
Forgoing a trade show is not an option, but taking more time to plan and account for every dollar is.
Kice sees some
exhibitors decreasing their booth size from 20’ x 20’ to 10’ x 10’. This saves on everything from setup to personnel. With a more focused approach, planners have sent less on sales representatives and thought “out of the box” more often.
Andy Codamo of Sho-Aids points out a simple way to plan shows “out of the box” - outsource some of the work. Codamo has watched too many highly-paid profes- sionals spend hours setting up booths. If companies added the salary of using these professionals for the work into the cost of their event planning, suddenly out- sourcing wouldn’t seem as expensive.
Paying for labor is actually far cheaper than having three $50-an-hour employees fly in a day early to tediously wrestle with signage. He says saving a $100 on labor costs is a short-sighted decision. Efficiently using resources increases the return on a planner’s investment.
If the
general contractor of the event books up too quickly, planners can also turn to Exhibitor Appointed Contractors (EAC) who might be able to provide more per- sonal attention on the day of an event.
To save on costs, Codamo recommends that planners ask about overtime fees before booking. If a convention starts on a Monday, setup takes place on non-busi- ness days. He explains, “Try to make it so that vendors and the convention center work during normal business hours.”
This, of course, is not always possible, but it’s a good question to ask up front. Codamo notes that many booth setups have become lighter and smaller. This
Mid-Atlantic EVENTS Magazine 35
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