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October 28 2008 Denyse C. SelesnickThe Chinese curse "You should live in interesting times" is certainly true. If it gets any more "interesting" we're going to need the 750 billion dollar rescue, bailout or whatever euphuism is being used- to include 300 million prescriptions of Prozac. So how are we as an industry coping? Two events recently confirmed my absolute belief in the survival instinct of this trade show industry. Trade Show Executives Gold Gala honoring the top 100 leading shows in the industry really helped to create a more optimistic mood among the movers and shakers. First of all the brand new event was perfect in every detail. Held at the beautiful Ritz Carlton in Laguna Niguel, CA it showed Southern California at its finest. The seminars were interesting and well attended. The social events were to die for. Darlene Gudea and Diane Bjorkland did an incredible job. Almost everyone left feeling re-charged and ready to hit it again. The second event was October 15th at the IAEE Southwest Chapter meeting held at the Los Angeles Convention Center - which was just awarded LEEDS certification. The Convention Center received this recognition for its efforts in making an older building have high green marks. Those of you who havent been in Los Angeles recently will be amazed at all of the exciting additions and changes. People now walk their dogs in downtown Los Angeles. I worked downtown for 20 years and never saw one person walking a dog! The chapter has re-organized its educational program to really hit the needs of show management and suppliers. Under SWIAEE Education Chair, Stephanie Selesnick (yes we are related) the last two meetings have addressed ways to both sell and market in this challenging economy. The turnoutmore than 70 paid attendees at each event - shows that if you have the right programming they will come. Both Helen Berman who spoke about selling exhibit space in a slow economy (you can access it on www.helenberman.com) back in June. Denise Paccione and Kimberly Hardcastle-Geddes, CEM, Marketing Design Group in San Diego talked about switching mentality from a growing economy to a post-abundant era earlier this month. Their presentation was excellent and may be accessed at www.mdgworks.com. They presented some great case studies of how to change your show marketing message. Also at the same October event, Rick Calvert, CEM, spoke on Social Media for Dummies. Rick is also the SWIAEE Chapter Chair and runs Blog World. His presentation was aptly named because just about the entire audience was busy taking notes! He managed to explain in 45 minutes how the exhibition industry can benefit from both social networking and blogging. He also feels that the Internet and its huge potential is the biggest change of our lifetime. I am not a techie as most of you know who have tried to call me on my cell phone but Rick energized me about the potential for networking sites like Linkedin and Event Peeps. After the seminar, I received an invitation to join both. Where ordinarily I would delete it, instead I decided to see what it was all about. After joining Linkedin, within one day I heard from people all over the world from my past life. It was amazing! You have the choice to accept or reject people who want to be part of your network. Rick may be reached at www.blogworldexpo.com. Both Presidential candidates have talked about change - I've been in this industry long enough to have gone through and survived several recessions, devaluations and other events of which we have no control. In order to survive and prosper we have to keep re-inventing our shows and ourselves. Stephanie and I sat down about eight months ago and decided that the financial clouds on the horizon looked grim. Over a bottle of very nice white wine, we re-evaluated what we were doing and what new things could we bring to the market place that would be of value in difficult times. Our new and improved web site (thanks to the talented folks at ASP) will give you a good idea as to some of our new projects and offerings. We are excited about our new newsletter The Global Glimpse (I can hear the groans nowanother newsletter?) which will feature a different country each month and its potential for U.S. pavilions, shows, etc. I welcome comments, suggestions, insights etc. etc. etc. One of the things that people have said about SISO is that we are like a family, but I don't think its restricted just to SISO. This is a close knit - sometimes incestuous - industry. I would love to hear from all of you - the extended members of my family! Denyse's Blog |
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