Why not take advantage of the slower months to jump on a great deal for your company. . . a new trade show booth. The Fall show season is around the corner. A great way to save some money is to have a new booth built or an old booth refurbished while your exhibit builder has a break in the trade show season. If you can have all your work done on a straight time basis, you save. Plus material costs are at their lowest in years so now is the time to act.
Also, do not forget the family. Your kids will only be young for so long so focus on the important side of life . . . the side that matters most. Catch a ballgame. Go to a dance recital. Maybe even take them on a short trip, vacation, or fishing. They really don't care where they go as long as it is with you.
The rest will do you well because the Fall trade show season is coming soon. Have a great Summer!!
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An article by Rachel Wimberly from tsnn.com discussed the story about the National Hardware Show resigning to stay in Las Vegas for the next six years. An interesting part of that article stated that trade shows and conventions are rebounding. The economy is recovering and business is happening again. With it, the place where it is seen is on the convention center floor. The line from Ms. Wimberly’s article reads:
“Several shows hosted in Las Vegas this year have had attendance upticks of 6 percent or more, including CES Intl., Intl. CTIA Wireless and The NAB Show, according the LVCVA.”
Why is this good news for the average company? Attendees are starting to come back to shows. People who have a vested interest in what is being presented on the show floor are starting to return. They and their companies are starting to loosen the reins and look at what they need to start growing their business again.
For any company, it is hard enough to maneuver in a tough economy. How do you get your marketing message and brand seen? How do you sell your company’s goods to those who have a need for them and want to buy them?
The ability for small and medium size companies to penetrate the marketplace is difficult, at best, regardless of the economic conditions. But, if done so correctly and efficiently, successfully marketing your company at a trade show or convention can bring you into that marketplace and allows you to gain access to those who use and need your company’s products and services.
Looking back at Ms. Wimberly’s article, she stated that 10,000 people attended the National Hardware Show. Regardless of the business you are in or the show you might attend - how much would it cost you to reach 10,000 buyers in three days without attending a trade show or convention?
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By Sara K. Clarke, Orlando Sentinel
April 22, 2010
Orlando hotels had their best month in a long time in March, feeding hope that better times are ahead after two years of recession and slumping travel.
Almost three of every four hotel rooms were filled last month, the first time that has happened since July 2008. And that average occupancy was up more than 9 percent from March 2009 — the biggest such jump in almost four years.
"If I were running a hotel now, I would probably breath a sigh of relief and start thinking that maybe I'm getting out of the woods," said Scott Smith, a lodging instructor in the University of Central Florida's Rosen College of Hospitality Management. "People are traveling again."
Hotels across the local market reported improved results after months of slumping business and steep discounts: Average occupancy was up 16.4 percent in downtown Orlando, 15.8 percent on International Drive and 11 percent in south Orlando, according to the latest report from Smith Travel Research, which tracks the hospitality industry nationwide.
Guests started returning in numbers last month at the DoubleTree Hotel by the entrance to Universal Orlando, where the occupancy rate approached 80 percent, General Manager Bill Worcester said.
He and other hoteliers are now focused on the June opening of Universal Orlando's Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which they hope will spark a boost in leisure travel to the area for months to come. And the fall opening of a major expansion at the Peabody Orlando hotel, next door to the Orange County Convention Center, could give the area's convention business a lift.
"I think a lot of exciting things have happened in Orlando, not only on the parks side but on the hotel side," Worcester said. "And I think that's eventually going to be very good for us."
Although optimistic about the second half of the year, Worcester also thinks it could take the Orlando market a while to get back to normal. Last month's statistical gains, for example, were partly a result of March 2009 having been a particularly tough month for local hotels; historically, they often exceed 80 percent average occupancy in March, but they were still well short of that this year.
"Last year was nothing to write home about," said Smith, the UCF instructor, who is not connected with Smith Travel. But "with a very low [2009] baseline in comparison, at least we're heading in the right direction."
Experts have been saying they don't expect the hotel business to recover until at least the end of this year. But some local managers report activity picking up now.
"This second quarter we're already starting to see it," said Tony Silva, sales manager for the Wingate by Wyndham. "Some weeks are even double what they were last year."
Silva's hotel, near Orlando International Airport, got a measurable boost this past week from the volcanic eruption in Iceland: 55 percent of its rooms Tuesday were filled with international visitors stranded by the ash cloud that shut down air travel across most of northern Europe.
But leisure travel generally has improved, he said, and the hotel's group business is doing well.
"I'm seeing a good forecast," he said.
Hotels are still discounting their rooms to attract guests, though in March they finally managed to draw enough people with the lower prices to boost the bottom line: Revenue per available room, a function of both room rates and occupancy, and a key industry measure, was up year-over-year for the first time since May 2008. It rose 3.2 percent.
The average room price in Orlando continued to fall last month when compared with a year earlier, dropping 5.6 percent to $99.76. But the decline was not as steep as those in previous months, when hoteliers were cutting prices by as much as 15 percent on average.
Geographically, the south Orlando submarket had the strongest month overall, followed by the International Drive area. The west Kissimmee submarket, directly south of Walt Disney World, fared the worst, with a 1.4 percent decline in occupancy and a 12.3 percent drop in average room price.
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McPier board backs labor, contractor, food changes
Published on April 21, 2010 10:55AM
By Kathy Bergen |
The board of the agency that runs McCormick Place voted to recommend making its union workers public employees without the right to strike, as a tool to try to wrest further changes in work rules that add to customer costs and aggravations.
It also voted to recommend reducing the number of unions that work in the complex and as well as to recommend giving the exposition authority the right to review show contractor invoices to ensure that labor cost reductions are passed along to customers.
The board also backed a recommendation to eliminate Focus One, its in-house electrical service, whose high prices have been a source of customer anger, allowing the hiring of outside contractors.
The Focus One vote was split, 4-3, with Mayor Richard Daley's appointees voting in favor, and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn's appointees voting against.
The board also voted to give customers the ability to order package food from outside vendors. That vote broke down the same way.
The board is now considering a governance change that potentially would give the city of Chicago and its mayor greater control of the authority, which is a joint state-city agency.
The board also just voted to recommend that convention-related marketing funding from the city and state be directed to the authority, rather than to the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau. The bureau currently markets McCormick Place and receives most of that marketing funding.
Earlier it recommended the General Assembly approve a restructuring of its debt as well as an operating subsidy in the neighborhood of $20 million to $25 million.
It will forward its recommendations to a legislative panel studying how to make Chicago more competitive with lower-cost rivals.
The board split over the proposed change in governance, so no change will be recommended.
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Convention Attendance Up in Atlanta
April 13, 2010
Seven out of nine major conventions held during the first quarter of 2010 exceeded attendance expectations by an average of 16 percent, drawing a combined total of 20,000 attendees, the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau (ACVB) announced this week.
Top-performing conventions included the Bronner Brothers International Mid-Winter Hair Show in February, which attracted 50 percent more attendees than expected; the American Meteorological Society's 90th Annual Meeting in January, which drew 40 percent more attendees than expected; and the 2010 International Poultry Expo, also in January, which attracted 7 percent more attendees than planned.
Also in the first quarter, Atlanta booked more than 15 major trade shows, resulting in 330,000 total hotel room nights for future years.
Finally, ACVB announced, Atlanta will host a total of 19 citywide conventions this year, including 10 of the country's 200 largest meetings.
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