Tell most people you’re going to an exhibition in France and they’ll raise their eyebrows and ask you: “Paris?”. The allure of a capital city is a major marketing tool and in some cases may sway the opinion of an indifferent CEO or MD who otherwise would not attend.
However, people attending events in capital cities face their own range of complications, such as contending with congestion, higher prices and often more intimidating surroundings.
If you’re shrewd, unbound by city-specific or industrial connections, and invest carefully, second-tier cities can offer perhaps more than you might expect. They present more than a cheaper alternative.
When Diversified decided to take its Natural Products Show to Scandinavia, it didn’t go to the Swedish Exhibition and Congress Centre in Stockholm. In fact the venue it selected hadn’t even been built. At that initial stage, the perception from the firm was that the venue was a ‘bag of rubble’.
After completion, the 20,000sqm Malmömässan venue in Sweden, run by Artexis Nordic, part of the international company Artexis Group, drew more than 2,000 attendees to the first edition of Natural Products Scandinavia on 14 and 15 October 2012.
As a sign of the venue’s growing popularity, in June it hosts the European Open Seminar of UFI, the global association of the exhibition industry.
But before its first event, Diversified’s head of operations Helen Milton pondered that planning
a show for a theoretical venue posed some interesting challenges.
“Though the venue officially opened in February 2012, we were the first international show in October,” she says. “When we signed the contract, the venue had not been built.”
Natural progression
Milton says the organiser decided to bring the show to Sweden because the nation is located in a geographical area in tune with organic products. The decision to pick Malmo ahead of Stockholm was based in part on Malmo’s proximity to another major market.
“We saw there was a gap in the market,” she comments. “Malmo is located near Copenhagen. It’s 15 minutes on the train. This allowed the Danish market to come too.”
As the venue grew in the out-of-town area of Hyllie, so did the infrastructure around it. “When we first started going there, the roads weren’t great and there were no hotels around there,” says Milton. “Then a big shopping centre opened there in December 2012, and things improved.”
With healthy visitor numbers on its debut, Diversified returns to Malmo with the exhibition on 20 and 21 October this year.
But needs must, and sometimes industry is the draw. Commenting on Comexposium Shanghai’s decision to take the SITEVINETECH China 2013 wine machinery and equipment exhibition to third-tier city Yantai, deputy general manager Bjoern Kempe, says that while the city’s reputation for food and wine made it a prudent investment for the organiser, the issue was not without its challenges.
“The challenge we have in a third-tier city is visitor promotion,” he says. “We are working hard to get people to come to the city, looking at how we can work with local partners and government.”
In other cases the city itself is the draw, despite not having the same global profile as other cities.
San Diego’s US$520m expansion project due in 2015 should retain major events such as the world-famous Comic Con. When Comic Con comes to town, visitors feel like they own downtown.
It’s an experience event loyalists claim they wouldn’t get from competitors such as LA or Anaheim.
Holland’s Amsterdam RAI has a sister venue in Maastricht. The Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre (MECC). The venue is home to several long-established exhibitions, such as The European Fine Art Fair, an annual art event organised by The European Fine Art Foundation.
Kiki Reijner (pictured), business development manager at the MECC, says the idea of selecting an alternative venue to the obvious choice in the capital can have several significant payoffs, in addition to cost. The MECC offers 30,000sqm to the RAI’s 106,000sqm, but it can offer other benefits.
“Obviously we can’t compete in terms of square metres. But I can tell a client I will call the mayor and he will see them tomorrow – you can’t easily get that in a capital city,” she claims. “You can be sure you’re making the client feel welcome. There are closer connections with local government and possible suppliers, as well as subsidies.”
Reijner says the impact of a major event on a smaller city – Maastricht has 120,000 inhabitants – enables organisers and venues to demonstrate the regional impact of that event to the public. For a relatively small subvention figure from the local government, the organiser of a large exhibition may help leave €4m (US$5.4m) in the city through accommodation, catering and related service sectors.
“We can work with hotels to get them to create special menus. The event can literally take over the city. People like to feel they’re taken over the city for the event, the city can help define the event, rather than the venue. People walk around the theme of the event – they breathe it in. So much business at an event is done after 5pm,” says Reijner.
“People need to meet with each other in the city. But capital cities are huge and people tend to simply avoid getting lost by meeting at the venue.”
This was first published in Issue 1/2013 of EW. Any comments? Email exhibitionworld@mashmedia.net
