“Managing the Mega-Show”

Four critical elements — time, competition, internal pressures and expanded opportunities — make large industry events a special planning challenge

The mega-show. It seems that every industry has one. You know the signs: Show manuals the size of phone books, more regulations than Congress, and planning calendars that start decades in advance.

You also know the stakes are high for this major industry event — be it the biennial International Manufacturing Technology Show, the triennial International Plastics Exposition, or the quintennial Print show. For your mega-show, only novel, up-to-date offerings will do. Your R&D group is working overtime; you know all too well your competition is doing the same.

For exhibit managers, the mega-show is a different — and more menacing — beast than your usual show. You feel like your job is on the line. Succeed, and kudos are yours. Fail, and the consequences could be grim.

Drawing on personal experience managing shows both here in the United States and in Europe for the Plastics Machinery Division of Johnson Controls Inc., I have concluded that, regardless of industry, mega-shows have four main attributes in common: Time, competition, internal pressures, and expanded opportunities. Let’s take a look at each.

Time: Tick, ticking away

Schedules seem painfully long when you sign a space contract 18 months before opening day. But the hours quickly squeeze to a short supply during those final days before ribbon cutting. The most critical time constraints: Your planning time and your at-show time.

How well you use your planning time is crucial when it comes to the mega-show. You will need to appreciate the concept of being “on time” vs. “before” or “after” time. And that’s not all. On occasion, you may decide that some of these deadlines should be ignored for a greater savings in another area of the project.

For example, target date assignments for the arrival of shipments often carry penalty charges for freight coming in early or late. But it might be advantageous to pay such premiums to bring in other things (such as the panels for your second-deck conference room) after the target date. Why? Aisle space is quickly consumed by crates, and stray components that aren’t needed until the end of setup can impede construction. Though you pay a penalty charge, in the long run it may be cheaper than paying an I&D crew to constantly shuffle materials around the booth as they work.

On the show floor, the challenge is to use your time as effectively as possible. One exhibitor at the International Plastics Exposition underscored his time vs. productivity concerns by amortizing his company’s investment in the show over the all-too-brief hours of the show. He estimated that the show cost his company $10 for each second the hall was open. Who can afford to throw away that kind of money?

With that in mind, it’s important to consider how the time constraints of the mega-show hours affect your sales force. During the mega-show, they will need to deal efficiently with significantly greater numbers of prospects, leads, and existing customers than at any other exhibition. The number of show days is often the same; the number of attendees, considerably larger. Even for experienced booth staffers, this changed pace may require significant adjustments. Re-educating them may be necessary.

Competition: Vying for resources

While “competition” on the show floor is a given, you will also find it necessary to fight for limited resources in other marketing venues. Two examples: The battle for press attention and the rivalry for setup resources.

The expanded size of the mega-show means that more exhibitors are pressing for the attention of each passing prospect. Because of that, you should work to attract visitors well in advance of the event through a variety of integrated marketing means, including garnering press attention.

But it’s not always easy. Pre-show coverage in trade publications operates under deadlines three to four months out. Here, press releases are met with a great deal of competitive “noise” as editorial desks are swamped by paper and photography.

Trade publications have a limited amount of space dedicated to the show in each issue. To combat this problem, send out your message in bite-sized pieces more frequently and earlier than normal (beginning six to nine months or more before the exhibition). If you have enough that is newsworthy to say, monthly mailings may not be too much. And continue it right through the show dates and beyond — providing content for post-show reports.

During setup, your competition shifts to logistics — making arrangements for labor (e.g., who gets help for electrical wiring emergencies first?) and securing services that are in shorter supply, such as the cranes used for heavy equipment rigging.

To gain an advantage in this arena, get to know show management and show labor early. Crack open the show kit as soon as you receive it. Then call show management to discuss your setup situation. If necessary, call your riggers to discuss your special needs. Your might even consider taking a trip to the show city to meet in person with some of the show labor. That way, they’ll connect a name with a face. Plus, they know you’ve made every effort to communicate your needs with them before the show. They may reward your efforts with better service at the show.

Internal pressures: Feel the heat

The mega-show raises your visibility within the organization, attracts the input of an increased number of other disciplines within it, and tests your skills at team building and conflict resolution. For example, if your company has a broad range of product lines, a smaller, regional or market-specific show may be relevant to no more than a few of those products. But the broader scope of this show may be important to them all. Which equipment will you take? What will be left behind?

Input from your individual product managers is consistent: Each thinks his or her piece of equipment is a must for physical display. For a resolution, I’d suggest turning to upper management. Garner upper management’s input as early as possible; then share their directives with product managers. That should eliminate any squabbles — and allow you to continue with your planning.

Teamwork is also critical to the mega-shows’ success. At Johnson Controls, smaller shows often feature no equipment at all. Our larger booths display machinery in operation — plastic going in, finished bottles coming out. The success of these presentations requires the skills of cross-functional teams with representation from across the divisions — from the safety manager show signs off on machines before they go out the door, to the technicians who set up and run them at show site, to the sales staffers who much adapt their presentation style to a show environment with operational equipment. Be sure to include all these critical players in your communications cycle.

Yet another internal pressure comes from the equipment itself. Some of these pieces are shown in this way only once every three or four years. That leaves you with a short learning curve to gear up for each show, time after time. Plan accordingly, and keep records of what you’ve learned at each experience.

Expanded opportunities: Focus on the possibilities

For all its challenges, the mega-show offers a number of areas you can leverage to get the most from participation. Just as a larger exposition justifies the expense of showing machines in operation, it can also warrant the presence of prototype and niche-market products as part of the larger display to “test the waters.” The mega-show may also lead to the serendipitous discovery of new customers or applications for otherwise mature products as they are exposed to this large audience.

Since your competition is likely to take the show just as seriously as your company does, you may want to use this opportunity for structured intelligence gathering. Yet another mega-show advantage is the presence of upper-level personnel, who often attend only mega-shows to meet with prospects and customers. They may travel greater distances than they normally would, giving your sales force access to a diversity of decision makers.

Given the breadth of this event, you may even want to consider increasing the contingent from your home office. Include more of the rank-and-file employees to further their education on the industry and their contribution to the job they do.

Finally, with such a large group of salespeople in town, why not take advantage of the opportunity to have them come in a day early for a strategy session? In addition to setting tone and direction for the event before you, it can be a cost-effective way to gather the group for an exchange on field operations and day-to-day organizational functions in general.

Putting it in perspective

Successful mega-show exhibit management builds on the experiences of minor show participation without following lessons by rote. Some of the elements will be the same, others will be completely different.

The common thread in all shows? Details. Hundreds of them, sometimes inseparably knotted together, sometimes seemingly isolated — with nonetheless significant impact on the project as a whole. The key to success? Pay disciplined attention to these individual pieces without losing sight of the overall vision.

Mega-shows can be a particularly rough ride. And, unfortunately, only those closest to it can truly appreciate the odds — and what was accomplished despite them. On the other hand, if you master this one, little else in the industry can stand in your way.

— Published December 1994 in Exhibitor Magazine (ISSN 0739-6821), Rochester, Minnesota