RESERVED SEATS: The Minneapolis Convention Center assigned Railway Interchange two on-site event coordinators, according to Jeff Johnson, the center’s executive director, “due to the complexities involved in the show.”
convention meeting also was held. Another moving part was the 16 additional ‘in conjunction with’ groups, which were given to a third event coordinator to handle.” Johnson added: “The de- cision-making was very well organized, which made it easy for the convention center. Each individual association was in control
of decisions within its rented space — decorators, security, and other vendors. If a decision related to the entire Railway Inter- change convention, we went to AREMA for direction.” Not that the three trade associations had the authority to
make all of their own decisions. “We started out with one as- sociation demanding that the air walls be in place between the
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three halls. Of course, that didn’t happen,” Emely said. “You could walk from one show to another and notice the change of character because they serve different constituents, but we wanted the trade-show floor to have a unified appearance. So we developed — and all agreed upon — a logo for the combined event with a certain color scheme. Each association was asked to use the logo, and the color scheme was carried through to the decorating and the show-floor signage as well as all pre-event marketing and advertising.” Each association did its own marketing and advertising, just
as in previous years. But the four groups also had a common plan. “We all developed the plan and contributed to a fund that we managed at AREMA,” Emely said. “We placed ads on behalf of the event in major industry publications around the world in 2010 and 2011. And we did a lot of email blasts on be- half of the event itself.”
Into the Station The result was a “tremendous turnout, ... better than anyone expected,” said David Soule, REMSA’s executive director. “The