Car Care World Expo 2010 Report

[Uncle Sam]

We have had some time to analyze the results of our exhibiting at the ICA show and to email thanks to the many attendees that came by our booth to see our new products and/or talk to us. All things considered we had a very good show with some vendor sales, well qualified leads, and the solving of problems with some of our existing customers. The new medium security vendor models are being well received with customer orders plus we had the opportunity to educate new people about the benefits of our vending systems. We also had the opportunity to greet and chat with many of our long time customers which we do enjoy

The flip side of these very positive comments was the continued decrease in the number of attendees at this show. This is not a good trend to those of us who are exhibitors. We would like more people coming by to be educated on the reasons why they should buy our products. Although the Smith-Bucklin management people seem to want to "qualify" all attendees as "buyers" (or some category) for statistical reasons, I would caution them that those of us who are exhibitors are the only ones who can really "qualify" a potential customer. High Expo fees and limited exhibitor passes for getting onto the Expo floor is causing the declining numbers of those attending and deprives the exhibitors of the opportunity to educate new people about any particular product. (The staff says the declining numbers are the result of smaller booth staffs and distributors. Well, what do you expect when we exhibitors know the number of attendees is going to be down!!)

One last observation: There must be a lot of money in the building vendors because there are more exhibitors selling them now than ever before. Little do they know!

One of the very enjoyable after-hours events was the AutoCareForum get-together at Tony Roma's on Thursday evening. Meeting the real people behind the "handles", lively conversation, good food, and door prizes was the order of the day.

Uncle Sam

 

[rph9168]

Companies like Smith Bucklin exist to put these shows on and use them to generate revenue for themselves and the Associations they represent. We all know that the best solution for this industry is that this Show should be held every other year and the Regionals on the off year. This is logical and practical but until the ICA Board presses the issue it will never happen. If they won't consider that then they must figure out a way to attract more operators by making it more affordable for all.

As Show attendance drops and exhibitors shrink their booth size or eliminate it altogether costs to attend and exhibit at the Show will continue to rise just to cover the costs of staging it. Eventually I think the cost for exhibitors and attendees will rise to the point where attendance will drop to the point that the Show is no longer profitable for the ICA and Smith Bucklin and it will go the way of the dinosaur.

That time may not be that far away.

 

[robert roman]

I believe the recession can be blamed for the lower attendance figures at the last several shows.

Any drop in attendance this year is most likely the result of our jobless and weak economic recovery and the difficulty in finding and obtaining financing for new carwash projects.

Arguably, it would be a mistake for the ICA to change the frequency of the show to every other year. First of all, it would send the message that the industry is not confident about its prospects for growth. Second, it would eliminate a big opportunity for vendors to sell stuff.

With this in mind, perhaps the format of show should be changed instead of cutting it back.

 

[rph9168]

The recession or economic conditions are only part of the reason not the reason for the lower attendance. The Show has gotten too expensive to exhibit in or attend. Even presence in the booths was down as well as booth sizes. The Association must come up with some answers other than the economy when looking at the downward trend. When attendance was at its peak the company I worked for used to get a large box full of show passes. We gave them to distributors, many of whom included several in invoices they sent out. Badges for booth personnel were easily available upon request. Exhibiting at the Show, while not cheap, was a reasonable marketing expense.

There are other less expensive avenues to advertise and sell products in the industry other than the ICA Show. Regionals are far less expensive than the ICA Show and in many cases better attended. For the amount of money spent exhibiting some companies could increase advertising, hold webcasts, add more field support or distributor support programs or even run specials on their products on the Internet.

If the ICA does not take a hard look at the trend of declining attendance the demise of the Show will be self fulfilling. With the downsizing of booths, decrease in the number of exhibitors and decline in attendance there will come a time when the Show will lose money or be forced to charge so much to exhibitors and attendees that few will participate. The time to evaluate the situation objectively is now, not when the Show is forced to fold.

 

[Uncle Sam]

Bob Roman,

I have to agree with rph that the recession is a contributing factor, but not the reason for the poor attendee numbers at the recent CCWE. As an exhibitor the preliminary numbers for the show were "lousy", so exhibitors were reacting to the poor numbers by cutting back on booth personnel and required attendance by their distributors. Indeed the recent ICA statistics proved that the number of booth personnel and distributors was down significantly. (See Exhibitor View post) I think the main reason for poor atendance is the high cost of admission to the Expo Floor and no significant number of free passes given to exhibitors. Would you pay $89 to gain entrance to a new car dealership to look at the cars?

As for having the convention and Expo every 2 years, that idea is already being used in Australia. Why not here?

You talk about changing the format yet I see no suggestions or ideas for the format change! Let's see it!!

Uncle Sam

 

[robert roman]

Who am I to suggest to the powers that be. The ICA has a lot of smart people and I'm sure it will sort things out on its own.

When I attended the Expo in 2001, I found it interesting and fun. When I had a exhibit booth in 2005, I enjoyed the show even more and even managed to make a little money from booking a few consulting gigs and selling some of my books.

Since part of my business is dependent on new carwash development, I didn't exhibit or even go to the show in 2009 because of the recession. This year I didn't go because of the credit crunch. In my case, it just didn't seem to make sense.

On the other hand, if I was an equipment manufacturer, I no doubt would have scaled way back this year or taken a very different approach towards exhibiting.

For example, when I attended the show in 2008, my general impression, if I were an outsider, was that Sonny's looked like a whale in lake full of minnows. If draw and activity was any indication of sales, I'm sure that Sonny's booth sold multiples above the other OEM's. I would guess that this distinction was even greater this year.

I was hoping to see a slight increase in show attendance this year. Obviously, this didn't happen which leads me to believe that the effects of the credit crunch and jobless economic recovery are still strong enough to prevent many investors from pulling the trigger.

Consequently, I believe that attendance at the Expo isn't going to trend upwards until there is renewed interest by investors in new carwash development. Hopefully, this will occur to a certain extent within the next year or two.

 

[pitzerwm]

ICA Show Survey

Here you can put your comments about the show in Vegas.

http://www.esacshow.org/


A quick note to tell you I just finished the Exhibitor Survey on the ESAC website and it was great to immediately see the results of all the surveys taken so far and how my responses matched up with the other Exhibitors. Also, I can check back at any time to see the progress of the results and receive information updates concerning the show.

On the survey, my personal concerns were mostly focused around the educational sessions & also the poor attendance numbers by operators but it was neat to see what other suppliers feed back was and the list of people who had registered on the site already. As a small exhibitor these are really important for my return on investment each year so I have want to speak up now so I have a voice in future decisions.

A very quick form gets you registered and then 5-10 minutes on the Convention Survey is all it takes so I encourage you to register right now before it gets put on the back burner.

www.ESACshow.org

Email or call me or any other ESAC board member if you have a question or if you are not interested in receiving information concerning ESAC.

--
Shane Wells