Business-to-business (B2B) in-person 2022 events are returning with multiple shows readying to stage this month produced by members of the Exhibitions and Conferences Alliance (ECA). The coalition of professional, industry, and labour organisations that comprises the US face-to-face business events industry has highlighted the strong showing underway since the New Year as B2B events reopen across the country.
The year kicked off with Surf Expo in Orlando, Fl, which saw hundreds of small and medium businesses gathered to safely meet with buyers, press, and other industry professionals.
Informa Markets brought World of Concrete back to the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas 18-20 January. It was a show that attracted nearly 40,000 attendees and 1,100 exhibiting suppliers, twice the show’s size in June 2021, and close to pre-pandemic levels. The June show, ECA noted, was one of the first B2B in-person events to successfully stage last year, helping jump start the business events industry for the first time since the pandemic began, serving as a bellwether for the industry. That event will be followed by RX’s PGA Show and Emerald’s Kitchen & Bath Industry Show, both taking place in Orlando, Tarsus Group’s OFFPRICE Show taking place in Las Vegas and MHI’s MODEX 2022 show taking place in Atlanta. “Each event is expected to generate growth for their respective industry and millions of dollars in economic impact for their host cities,” the ECA noted.
Charlie McCurdy (pictured), president and CEO, Informa Markets, said: “With success and safety at the heart of our planning, we are thrilled to be delivering the in-person event format in 2022, kicking off with World of Concrete in Las Vegas. We’re moving forward with that event, and many others in the US, Europe & the Middle East, Asia, and elsewhere, based on our communities’ enduring belief in the value of the platforms we provide, and need to reconnect and recover together.”
McCurdy added that the trade show and events industry has a big responsibility. “We play an important role in stimulating the vitality of the global industries we serve and the regional economies that host our events,” he said. “Trade shows traditionally generate $325bn in business sales annually for a wide variety of industries, and World of Concrete — one of our 400 market-defining events around the world — delivered an economic impact of an estimated $109m to Las Vegas in January 2020.”
"While events are seeing scattered cancellations from exhibitors and attendees due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the latest Omicron variant, thousands of businesses remain committed to attending trade show events in 2022," the ECA underlined. “Business events are a crucial resource for small businesses to help them rebound and recover from the impacts of the pandemic and they rely on trade shows as a primary source for networking and deal-making that moves their business forward. From June through October 2021, more than 1,000,000 people – exhibitors, small and large business owners, and other attendees – flocked to hundreds of events held in dozens of major cities across the United States, supporting this nearly $400bn industry that is vital to the existence of small and mid-sized businesses and helps fuel the US economy," the ECA statement continued.
As well as highlighting its key members' experiences of coming back strong, the ECA quoted Ken Kosak, PGA Show general manager/COO of Belfair in Bluffton, SC and PGA attendee, who underscored the importance of PGA to his business: “The PGA Show is an essential part of our annual business plan. The ability to meet in an organised setting and see firsthand the latest trends in the industry…is invaluable to me in managing our club. Much of our industry is driven by relationship building and networking, and to be able to see longtime friends, colleagues, and business partners in person is incredibly exciting. I have tremendous confidence in PGA Leadership in hosting the PGA Show in an environment where everyone feels comfortable attending.”
ECA member Tarsus CEO Douglas Emslie stressed how crucial the OFFPRICE Show is to the retail industry this year, more than ever, due to ongoing supply chain disruptions. “The OFFPRICE Show brings the US retail industry together; it’s where retailers come to source in-stock inventory that can ship quickly and to meet all the important vendors under one roof. Given the disruption that supply chains have experienced over the past two years shows like this are more critical than ever, especially for small and medium size businesses,” he said.
Emslie added: “Virtual events were a useful solution for some industries at the height of the pandemic but for many industries, especially retail, nothing can replace the value of a live event and the opportunity to see products in-person, meet new contacts and write orders on the show floor. Our customers appreciate the opportunity to close business in a safe and secure environment – it would take buyers weeks and multiple trips to meet with the same number of vendors outside of a show.”
“We are committed and excited to lead the way in bringing in-person events back to our customers in a safe and productive way. Attendee presence at Emerald’s recent events has been driven by the need to meet rising consumer demand, which has resulted in extensive order writing and new business generation for our exhibitors, especially small and mid-size businesses who are heavily reliant on trade shows to drive their business,” said Hervé Sedky, president and CEO of Emerald, another ECA member.
With over 850 exhibitors, MODEX 2022, taking place 28–31 March at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, GA, is set to provide in-person, in-action solutions, insights and 172 show floor sessions. Organiser MHI says it is committed to the global supply chain industry and is eagerly moving forward with producing a safe and productive exhibition in Atlanta. "Our association, community and affiliated organisations need to re-engage in order to power this very critical industry forward. We cannot and will not turn back,” said Daniel McKinnon, executive vice-president, Exhibitions, MHI.
ECA represents the common interests of the US exhibitions and conferences industry to legislators and is a coalition of eight partner organisations. For more information, visit www.exhibitionsconferencesalliance.org.
