On Monday, CEIR delivered a press release which highlighted 2009′s exhibition industry performance per last year’s Index reporting. The news was – not unexpectedly – not good.
You can review the official press release here, which states that the industry experienced an overall decline of 12.5 last year. That is four times greater than the largest previous loss ever recorded by the Index of 3.1 percent in 2008. All eleven industry sectors experienced declines in 2009.
CEIR President Doug Ducate is working feverishly with economic advisors from JEGI and the Sloan School to analyze those results for CEIR’s soon to be released 2010 Index – but he offered some general analysis to me this week to sum up the overtures of the report.
Ultimately, the record free fall of the Index numbers last year shows us that even an industry as resistant to decline as ours can’t withstand a recession as devastating as the one which began in 2008. The question on everyone’s mind now is recovery, and when it will return us to pre-2000 levels of performance.
Our recovery is contingent upon a more robust economy – which, in reflection upon the first quarter of this year, may not happen until 2011 or 2012. The 2010 Index will be able to shed more light on a timetable for recovery, so look for it release mid-April at www.ceir.org.
