Reports on the exhibition organizers, and exhibitors making news in the world of trade and consumer shows. en-us http://www.tradeshowweek.com/community/Exhibiting/47376.html?nid=3636 2008 Reed Business Information. Subject to its Terms of Use. Wed, 14 May 2008 21:04:42 MST http://www.tradeshowweek.com/article/CA6558524.html?nid=3636 Almost all American show organizers want more international participation at their shows. Sure, there are problems with visas but, with the weakening of the dollar, it becomes easier and more profitable to draw attendees from other countries. However, there are challenges. Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.tradeshowweek.com/article/CA6558537.html?nid=3636 GES Exposition Services announced cost-saving employee cutbacks during a recent first-quarter earnings conference call held by its parent company Viad. At press time, GES Public Relations Manager Detra Page said the tradeshow general service contracting firm had completed all planned job eliminations. Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.tradeshowweek.com/article/CA6556414.html?nid=3636 Viad, GES Exposition Services' parent company, had positive earnings in the first quarter of 2008 with a 20-percent increase in net income to $16.7 million, compared with $14 million in the same period last year. Mon, 05 May 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.tradeshowweek.com/article/CA6554206.html?nid=3636 For many years, the claim has been bandied about the tradeshow industry that the average exhibiting company does not follow up on 80 percent of its leads. It sounds counterproductive at the very least, if not preposterous, when reaching potential clients would appear to be the most important reason for exhibiting. Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.tradeshowweek.com/article/CA6554724.html?nid=3636 Margit B. Weisgal has been named executive director of the Trade Show Exhibitors Assn. and current TSEA President Stephen Schuldenfrei has announced his retirement. Weisgal has been with exhibitor training consulting firm Sextant Communications for almost 20 years and in 2007 received TSEA's Distinguished Service Award. Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:27:00 MST http://www.tradeshowweek.com/article/CA6552187.html?nid=3636 Heightened awareness of our planet in peril is not only making show organizers, venues, contractors and exhibitors more green-conscious, but also it's bringing greener and more eco-friendly products to the tradeshow floor. Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.tradeshowweek.com/article/CA6552190.html?nid=3636 For the second time in the last year, a Tradeshow Week 200 show ranked in the top 20 has moved from GES Exposition Services. In the most recent shift, Freeman was awarded the contract by The Society for the Plastics Industry for the triennial NPE – The Intl. Plastics Showcase in 2009. Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.tradeshowweek.com/article/CA6549591.html?nid=3636 Mark Yuska, president of the new Arlington, Va.-based Alliance Exposition Services, is offering customers something a general service contractor rarely does: a bill of rights. “I wanted to hit on every area,” Yuska said of the 10 rights. Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.tradeshowweek.com/article/CA6549600.html?nid=3636 Nomadic Display, maker of portable and modular exhibits, collected more than 140 pairs of pajamas during the recent Exhibitor in Las Vegas. The pajamas were then donated by a charity known as Helen's Pajama Party to The Shade Tree, a Las Vegas shelter serving more than 3,355 homeless and abused women and children each year. Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.tradeshowweek.com/article/CA6547107.html?nid=3636 It shocked longtime exhibitors and attendees when Trans-World Exhibits announced last October that the Intl. Halloween Costume and Party Show and the Natl. Haunt and Attractions Show would be in Las Vegas for 2008. But now the show's returning to the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont. Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.tradeshowweek.com/article/CA6547108.html?nid=3636 Bumps in the road turn everybody into economics majors. There are people who wouldn't be caught dead anywhere close to the business section of their local paper in good times who are now spouting off about credit crunches, discount windows and something called a Freddie-blessed mortgage-backed security. Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.tradeshowweek.com/article/CA6545108.html?nid=3636 LAS VEGAS—New guidelines governing the safety inspection process for temporary structures have caused the managers of at least two major tradeshows here to lose sleep recently. Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.tradeshowweek.com/article/CA6545112.html?nid=3636 Sometimes it seems as if we write the same stories over and over. The events are the same; only the names of the people and shows change. However, as these patterns develop, sometimes they tell us something. One of the first stories I wrote for Tradeshow Week concerned the massive annual electronics show CeBIT at Messe Hannover in Germany. Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.tradeshowweek.com/article/CA6545115.html?nid=3636 General contracting firms Hargrove and Freeman both have made high-level personnel changes recently. Hargrove has new owners, effective March 18, when founder and president Earl C. Hargrove Jr. sold the company to his son-in-law and daughter, Tim and Carla McGill. Tim McGill has been CEO of Hargrove since 2002, and Carla McGill, vice president, has been with the company more than 20 years. Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.tradeshowweek.com/article/CA6545116.html?nid=3636 Champion Exposition Services has opened a new office in Orlando – a 60,000 square foot facility that will serve as its operations headquarters for all the events it services throughout Florida and as home to its Florida-based sales team. That team will include Beth Heffernan-Monaco, who recently joined Champion as director of sales and previously worked for GES Exposition Services. Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.tradeshowweek.com/article/CA6545117.html?nid=3636 Have freight that needs to get to a tradeshow in China, Germany or Dubai, United Arab Emirates? Worse, need to get something to the United States from one of those countries, but organizing the logistics seems like a nightmare? Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.tradeshowweek.com/article/CA6542144.html?nid=3636 According to Exhibitor Magazine Group, its March 9-13 Exhibitor at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino broke its own records. By the time the show opened, 3 percent more people had pre-registered than at the same time in 2007. But what mattered most to the 315 exhibitors filling 77,500 net square feet of exhibit space was not the number of attendees so much as the quality. Mon, 24 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.tradeshowweek.com/article/CA6543401.html?nid=3636 CONEXPO-CON/AGG, the massive triennial construction-industry tradeshow that typically tops the TSW 200 each year it is held, broke all records during its March 11-15 run at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Wed, 19 Mar 2008 12:23:00 MST http://www.tradeshowweek.com/article/CA6539175.html?nid=3636 No sector of the tradeshow industry was hit earlier or harder by the last economic downturn in 2002 than exhibit service providers. Those still thriving today recall seeing their colleagues close their doors, one after another. Mon, 10 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MST http://www.tradeshowweek.com/article/CA6539176.html?nid=3636 It's the oldest story in the tradeshow business: The exhibitors complain to the show manager that they didn't get enough leads. The show manager says – or at least thinks to him or herself – the exhibitor got the leads, but either didn't realize it or know what to do with them. Mon, 10 Mar 2008 00:00:00 MST