An exhibition is, first and foremost, its exhibitors. So what happens when your exhibitors’ aspirations for the show rise beyond managing their booths to running the exhibition itself?
It’s a surprisingly common event, especially where the target market is concentrated around a small group of powerful exhibitors. Take motor shows for example. The withdrawal of just a few unconvinced manufacturers has in several cases led to the collapse of a show that typically has a great deal of public demand.
The 2009 edition of AutoRai in Holland was one example of a motor show that had to be entirely redesigned in light of the withdrawal of key brands, while in the UK the British Motor Show was sunk outright after several market-leading manufacturers put their marketing coffers into other projects.
In some cases a savvy organiser such as Clarion Events, which worked on the British Motor Show, will evolve the event - or create one anew - to satisfy the public demand while not being dependent on the involvement of any one exhibitor. In this case leading to the creation of a new event, MPH; a cross between a car show and a glamorous spectacle for motoring enthusiasts centred around a large performance area.
But clearly this is more difficult to do with trade events than with consumer shows. What happens in the event that the revolting exhibitors - and I don’t mean that in any pejorative sense – unite to take the show away from you and run it at a lower cost to exhibitors, and the market itself?
Clarion encountered precisely that problem in the UK at the end of last year as the top six exhibitors at its International Caravan and Motorhome event at the NEC in Birmingham conspired to wrest control of the exhibition away from the organiser. Perhaps it would have benefitted from cutting the exhibitors in on the show’s profits, or – once it had wind of the potential for revolt - evolving the show event in such a way that its involvement was fundamental to the show’s make-up.
Speaking to EW recently, Clarion’s pragmatic MD Simon Kimble said that the episode had been disappointing, and that the exhibitors had left Clarion “between a rock and a hard place”. After all, what organiser wants to stand between a market and the event it wants to run itself. Kimble believes the trick is to try and spot the storm brewing before it forms overhead. “Organisers have to work harder with industries to make sure they’re adding value not just selling exhibition space. What we are doing is actually providing good for an industry, promoting it and making it work better for them. That’s the kick to make sure that our industry, the exhibition industry, does a better job.
The thought of losing a show to its exhibitors is enough to send a shiver down the spine of any organiser. So make sure that in every one of your events you are adding value for the industry you serve. Otherwise you may well find shows slipping away from you.
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