Last week, CEIR released an update to the 2009 report, The Spend Decision: Analyzing How Exhibits Fit into the Overall Marketing Budget, which provides an analysis of the changes and trends in the exhibition industry during the past several years, how the economy has impacted the global industry, and the outlook for the near future. This important study should be carefully reviewed by show organizers to assess the shifts in their customer base.
The results provide insight into how marketing funds are allocated to business-to-business exhibitions, what objectives marketers seek to achieve using this medium and how they measure success of participating.
A modest recovery is evidenced with increases in participation in the number of events. The lowest point was in 2009, with a median of eight events per year, down from a high of 14 in 2008 and 2007. Beginning in 2010, the median number of exhibitions (NOE) increased to nine and is projected to hold at this level through 2012. The chart below shows this information:
The report discusses forecasts for booth set-up and furnishings, booth staff travel, new exhibit purchases, trends in objectives for exhibiting, success metrics and commentary on reasons for exhibition schedules for 2011 and 2012.
Top line findings were discussed at a webinar held last week by Nancy Drapeau, PRC, Director of research. To access the archived version of this webinar, go to https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/152746366.
We would welcome any of your comments on this report. To obtain your copy of this 38-page report, please click here. In future blog posts, we will explore further this study and some of its significant findings.
