After a year-long tussle with show organizer IDG World Expo, Cupertino, CA-based Apple Computer announced in September that it would not participate in a major industry show, Macworld CreativePro, which revolves around its products. The reason: Framingham, MA-based IDG inked a deal to hold the show at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in July 2004, with an option for subsequent years. But since late last year, Apple had threatened to leave the show if it wasn't held in New York, as in the past.
"When IDG initially announced its plans to move summer Macworld [CreativePro] to Boston in 2004, we were very clear that we did not think it was a good move," reads a statement from Apple. "Our position stands and Apple will not be participating in Macworld [CreativePro] Boston. [Conversely,] we are 100-percent committed to Macworld San Francisco in January every year."
David Korse, CEO of IDG, notes that the wishes of other exhibitors and the attendees won out over Apple's concerns. His predecessor, Charlie Greco, said last year that the cost savings to exhibitors coming to Boston would be as much as 35 percent compared to New York; while Korse could not confirm that exact figure, IDG spokesperson Beth Wickenheiser says that "in general, the costs of most services in Boston are certainly less expensive than in New York."
Mary Beth Rebedeau, executive director of the Society for Independent Show Organizers in Chicago Ridge, IL, says that management decisions that ruffle cornerstone exhibitors are tough to make, but sometimes necessary. "The threshold for catering to your biggest exhibitors is at a different place for each organizer," she says. "You got to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em, based on the circumstances of your show and your industry."
David D. Audrain, COO of Henderson, NV-based show producer ConvExx and immediate past chairman of the International Association for Exhibition Management in Dallas, stresses that show managers can remain true to their long-term strategy even if some core exhibitors don't like the plan. "It behooves a show to have as broad a base of exhibiting companies as possible," Audrain says. "It should never be as simple as saying, 'We'll do whatever the big guys want.' If it means that you listen to the constituency of smaller exhibitors over a few large ones, sometimes that's the way it has to happen."