Case Studies
What to Expect From AIBTM and IMEX America
As two major meetings expos come to America in 2011, planners and buyers can expect more education and fewer travel expenses.
By Leo Jakobson
December 2, 2010
Two big changes are coming to the meetings, conventions, and incentives industry trade show market in 2011.
The first and most revolutionary is that a pair of new exhibitions debuting in the United States will bring the hosted-buyer format that is so successful in Europe to the world's biggest meetings market. The second is that these shows will hasten a growing trend that has seen the professional education portion of existing industry shows—most notably The Motivation Show—expand substantially, becoming more like the industry association conferences that are mainly about learning and networking.
The Hosted Buyers Are Coming
The two shows coming stateside are the Americas Incentive, Business Travel, and Meetings Exhibition (AIBTM) and IMEX America. Both are spin-offs of long-established and successful European shows. And both follow the European hosted-buyer model, in which vetted buyers have their expenses paid in exchange for attending mandatory, rigidly scheduled appointments with exhibitors.
This format "ups the supplier price, but the supplier gets it back because they get increased foot traffic and increased business," explains Fay Beauchine, president of engagement and events for Minneapolis, MN-based Carlson Marketing, a meeting and incentive planner. "Yes, it's more expensive to exhibit at those shows, but the return is greater, and that's a pretty simple business model."
Meeting Professionals International (MPI) is sold on the concept, says President and CEO Bruce MacMillan. He says the Dallas-based association—which will provide the educational programming at IMEX America and is working on a major research project with AIBTM—did "beta testing" on the hosted-buyer concept at July's MPI World Education Congress in Vancouver, which has a trade show component. "The satisfaction rating from our buyers and suppliers was 100 percent. In the past it was traditionally 75 to 85 percent. We, as an association, made the decision that hosted buyers will provide the best return on investment to our members," says MacMillan.
It is important to point out that despite expecting 2,000 hosted buyers each, neither AIBTM nor IMEX America is an exclusively hosted buyer show. "I expect more than that non-hosted," says Ray Bloom, chairman of the East Sussex, U.K.-based IMEX Group. At the 2010 European IMEX, in Frankfurt, Germany, "we had just under 4,000 hosted buyers and roughly another 5,000 non-hosted," he notes.
Still, hosted buyers are "the foundation of the show," says Bloom. "We have found that, properly undertaken, properly organized, with a good level of qualification of the buyers, we're able to attract a high volume of high-quality buyers to attend the show. Even during the last two years, during the difficult economic climate worldwide, we've probably had as successful shows as we've ever had."
Hosted buyers are not the only way to draw attendees, argues Pete Erickson, managing director of The Motivation Show, which targets a more limited audience than the broad meetings, conventions, and associations that AIBTM and IMEX America serve. While Erickson's Chicago-based show has added a hosted-buyer component, "our focus continues to be that we are located in the heart of the incentive marketplace, for the headquarters of incentive companies," he says. "This year we had 24 of the 25 largest incentive companies, with over 250 registrants. Our audience comes from a regional base, and we are in the heart of that region."
Partners in Education
Like The Motivation Show, both AIBTM in Baltimore in June and IMEX America in Las Vegas in October will kick off with a full day of education before opening their exhibition floors.
That is a concept The Motivation Show adopted this year, reducing the exhibition days from three to two and leaving a full day for the expanded and revised education program. An advisory panel of industry experts worked with the show's producers to improve the offering, says Erickson. In addition, two associations co-located separate educational programs that first day.
The two new shows are taking this a step further, and "one of the questions we've been getting from buyers and from our exhibitors, is how this is going to work," says Steve Knight, AIBTM's project manager.
"Our show will kick off on Tuesday, June 21, with AIBTM education day," he says. "The 2011 Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) Education Conference will also start that day. Ours will be run by many of our other industry association partners. That evening will be the Convention Industry Council (CIC) Hall of Leaders gala."
On Wednesday the AIBTM exhibition floor will open. "On Thursday the PCMA conference is going to finish at 11 a.m.," Knight says. "At that point, a select number of their buyers will come into AIBTM as hosted buyers."
IMEX America is doing this on an even greater scale. MPI will be IMEX America's major education provider, hosting a day of events on October 10, and on exhibition day mornings. PCMA will co-locate another conference, its International Summit, there. The American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) will host an Association Day program. Incentive travel association Site will hold its 2011 International Conference in Las Vegas immediately after IMEX America ends.
"We've always considered the education part of shows very important," says Bloom. "However that is an enhancement of the entire event. Above all else, IMEX America is a trade show to create business opportunities for suppliers and buyers."
Originally published Dec. 1, 2010
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