New report: Exhibitions are resilient
Despite economic challenges and alternative marketing options, participants and exhibitors use and value exhibitions, and indicate this will continue in the next two years.
This is the finding of Trends in Exhibitions, the fifth report based on the The Role and Value of Face-to-Face Interaction Study Series by the Center for Exhibition Industry Research, Dallas. This 12-page report looks at partcipant and exhibitor use of exhibitions, including frequency, reasons for participating and projected use in the near future.
The study found that six of 10 exhibition participants will attend the same number of exhibitions as they are attending today in two years; and 23 percent plan to attend more. For exhibitors, 53 percent will hold to current participation levels in two years, while an additional 24 percent will add more exhibitions to their schedule.
Other key findings:
- When comparing attendance to business-to-business exhibitions and private events, participants favor exhibitions. They attend an average of 3.4 exhibitions annually compared to 2.6 private events.
- The search for new products continues to be the primary driver to attend (80 percent).
- Seventy-eight percent of exhibiting companies participate in more than two exhibitions each year, with a median of five per year.
- Forty-four percent of exhibitors participate in the same number of exhibitions as they did two years ago.
- For exhibitors planning to add exhibitions in the near-term, driving business growth is the primary reason.
The study was made possible by a grant from the Exhibition Industry Foundation and is available at www.ceir.org.
