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| Choosing the Right Exhibition for The Right Reasons |
| Source from:TJI 03/19/2010 |
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Most companies cannot afford not to be present at the key exhibitions of their industry. However, it is vital to select the right show. This decision-making guide for exhibitors lists the main criteria, helping you to make the right choice.
Why exhibit?
Exhibitions are important events that require extensive planning. They are also expensive, involving fees, travel, accommodation and time invested, especially should they go wrong. A number of questions need to be resolved prior to deciding to exhibit.
Powerful reasons for exhibiting are the launch of new products or services, gaining footholds in new markets, demonstrating competitive strength and innovation, increasing prestige, networking, making new contacts and refreshing old ones, and ultimately, sales. Leaving budgetary considerations aside for the time being, the Where and Who are decisive factors, especially if one needs to decide between competing exhibitions.
Location, location, location
Location is a question of geography, easy access by travel, sufficient and adequate accommodation as well as general infrastructure, including security aspects. That is one part of the equation. The other part is the venue itself: where is the exhibition being held? What are the facilities like? In recent TJI issues we have reviewed Munich, the capital of Bavaria in Germany, and the new exhibition centre, the venue for the World Tobacco Expo 2011.
The New Munich Trade Fair Centre is one of the world's most modern exhibition centres and sets standards in functionality, service and communication possibilities. Opened in 1998, it is both spacious and flooded with light. The combination of glass, wood and steel on the one hand and lakes, green open spaces and trees on the other creates a harmonious overall impression. The highly functional facilities include efficient visitor and vehicle guidance systems, state-of-the-art presentation and communications technology and uniformly high-quality exhibition areas. Seventeen halls cover an exhibition area of 180,000 square metres. Each hall is situated at ground level and has daylight. Constructed without pillars and with a clear height of eleven metres, vehicles can be driven through the halls for stand assembly and dismantling.
In this issue, we look at the competing exhibition, Tabexpo 2011, to be held in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic.
Prague is one of the oldest cities in Europe, and a beautiful one at that, with an abundance of culture and places of interest.
One of these is the Incheba Industrial Palace, an exhibition centre built in 1894 and selected as venue for the Tabexpo 2011. On a sad note, the left wing was completely destroyed by a fire in October 2008 and, to date, some sixteen months later, still fields a temporary tent structure (with heating). And this, although both the city of Prague, owners of the premises, and Incheba Exhibitions, who have leased the premises, issued statements as far back as April 2009 indicating that they intended to reconstruct the left wing (http://www.cbw.cz/Print.aspx?id=prague-and-incheba-square-off-over-palace-payments).
Well-informed business sources in Prague have told TJI that, while everything is possible, it is more than unlikely that the left wing will be reconstructed completely by November 2011 and that it might well be more of a construction site at the time. There is certainly no guarantee that reconstruction will be complete, in fact, it is not even clear in what form the left wing will be rebuilt - according to the old plans, which the city of Prague prefers, or to modified architectural drawings.
The Incheba Exhibitions' homepage honestly depicts existing floor plans, terming the left wing as a temporary hall. A comparison with the floor plan offered by Tabexpo outlines the existing tent in black (no mention was made until recently that it was a tent), as well as offering space outside the tent demarcation, with some booths (G29 and G30) even partially outside the original boundary lines. All this makes it extremely difficult to assess the correctness of the data, as the present plans for the left wing include a lot of wishful thinking, and with only twenty months to go, buildings like that are not knocked up in a matter of a few months.
This may explain why some of the major trade shows already have, or are considering, moving their events to other venues.
That covers the Where, now for the Who.
Choosing the organiser
There are a number of criteria an organiser needs to fulfil. Reputation and expertise in carrying out exhibitions and trade shows is one aspect and can be evaluated quite easily by looking at track records over a longer period of time, as well as the quality of recent events.
Another important aspect is financial funding. Exhibitions are expensive and venues always ask organisers for cash up front when booking, which can be a considerable strain on the financial resources of organisers. To improve cash flow, organisers are therefore often tempted to offer considerable discounts to early bookers, unless, of course, you are organising cutting-edge trade shows like the Interpack, with a long list of exhibitors queuing for space.
And the third aspect is trust. Are the organisers being honest with their customers, or are you running the risk of making an exhibition of yourself if things go wrong? Are the planning data reliable, can they be verified if necessary, what are the fall-back positions?
Look for reasonable pricing
Exhibition prices vary quite considerably, depending on the venue, the services and infrastructure provided and the type of exhibition. The price per square metre charged to exhibitors also depends on build-up and break-down times, which need to be included in the calculation. It is therefore quite possible that different rates are charged for different exhibitions at the same venue. The current figures quoted by Incheba range from CZK 43 to 65 per square metre/per day (EUR 1.65 to 2.50, USD 2.25 to 3.40) and, allowing for 30 days to include pre- and post-exhibition time at the maximum rate, we are talking about EUR 75 (USD 102) maximum. To this must be added organiser's costs and, of course, profit. To give an idea of the differences possible, we have compared rates. Tabexpo 2011 charges from EUR 425 to 575 per square metre, the World Tobacco Expo Munich 2011 charges EUR 320, and the rates for the last Drupa were EUR 295 per square metre. Enditem
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