As The Americas Incentive, Business Travel & Meetings Exhibition show (
AIBTM) prepares for its Chicago debut, the travel and meetings industry trade show is looking forward to a strong reception in its new home.
The response to the change of venue has been "absolutely phenomenal across the board from suppliers, exhibitors, and buyers,"says Michael Lyons, exhibition director of AIBTM. "For all the folks like me who used to go to IT&ME [the Motivation Show] in Chicago every year, this is a great opportunity to return to Chicago. Chicago is one of the world's great destinations, so people just love going there, aside from that fact that it's accessible.”
Lyons notes that Chicago is also home to 2,000 associations and nonprofits, and enjoys proximity to a sizable number of corporate and third-party meeting planners and incentive houses. He anticipates approximately 1,000 hosted buyers to attend, and about the same number of non-hosted or "trade"buyers, as well as about 1,500 suppliers.
"Our registrations are up way over where they were a year ago,"Lyons says. "Our exhibitors are excited by the fact that we're going to be delivering a more diverse and larger number of buyers than we had last year in Baltimore, partially because we're drawing from this eclectic mix of buyers coming from the Midwest and across the country as well.”
After two years in Baltimore, AIBTM will spend 2013 and 2015 in Chicago's McCormick Place convention center and 2014 and 2016 in Orlando's Orange County Convention Center. "They are totally different destinations, but both are conducive to doing good business,"Lyons says.
Interactive Education
The theme of the show is "Defining the Future of Meetings Together"and AIBTM's management has worked with all of its education partners to ensure that theme remains central to all of the show's learning sessions, says Lyons. Most of that education will take place on Tuesday, June 11 — the pre-exhibition Education Day, which will offer more than 30 hours of CEU-accredited sessions.
"I've been to many conferences over the years and, in some cases, you find the education offerings are kind of disconnected, don't seem to be on the same page,"Lyons says. "We sat down and said, ‘Let's come up with a strategy that will tie into this whole theme of ‘Defining the Future of Meetings Together.' That word ‘together' is very important and [we wanted to] make sure all the organizations that are providing educational content at AIBTM are on the same page. All these sessions will fall in line with the overall strategy of being interactive, meaning the audience will have the ability to participate — primarily through their own cellphones, texting live right in the room — and see the results of that instant polling.”
That input and feedback from participants will provide AIBTM with an "up-to-the-minute, real-time pulse of where the industry is and where we're going in the next couple of years,"Lyons says. "Then we will share that after the fact with the industry.”
Education will be provided by many of the industry groups with whom AIBTM has partnered. These include: the International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE), Meeting Professionals International (MPI), the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA), the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE), and the incentive travel association Site.
In addition, the show's opening keynote speaker will be J. Walker Smith, the principal of The Futures Company. He will kick off the Education Day with a keynote address discussing the demonstrable value of face-to-face relationships in an increasingly digital age. On Wednesday, June 12, the keynote speaker will be Seth Mattison, an expert on Millennials and principal speaker for BridgeWorks, a generational training and consulting firm. His topic will be "Rocking the Workplace: Managing and Leading the Four Generations,"in which he will offer fresh research and case studies focusing on what it takes to attract and retain top talent of every age, as well as advice on managing the differences between those different generations.
While there will be no formal education sessions held on Wednesday, June 12 and Thursday, June 13, to accommodate trade show hours, those days will not be devoid of learning opportunities. There will be an 80-person lecture theater on the show floor for "fast-track"educational sessions and speaker showcases lasting 20 to 25 minutes each, Lyons says. These are designed to allow buyers to pop into a session when they are between appointments, without having to trek off the floor to the education area.
Other on-the-floor activities include Market Focus sessions looking at Latin America, Asia, and Europe, and the Future Events Experience, which will showcase the latest and most advanced technologies, products, and services available to meetings professionals. It will include a new TECHbar with one-on-one advice available for planners on how to use specifics technologies in their meetings, ranging from tech beginners who want to get more out of the smartphones and iPads to more advanced topics like using enterprise applications and leveraging audience response systems.