Tip of the Week

Business SMART:	How Many Trade Shows Are Too Many?
	By: Dennis A. Conforto Chairman & CEO of A-Z Media Group, Inc.

One of the great challenges of any industry is to find the right balance in the number of trade shows to properly support an industry. Too many trade shows makes it difficult if not impossible for both manufacturers and retailers to be profitable. Too few trade shows and it could hurt the growth and expansion of the entire industry. The challenge, therefore, is to understand the right amount of trade show for an industry to truly be successful. I for one believe that we have too many trade shows for the scrapbooking industry and that it’s now starting to have a negative impact on everyone within the industry. Recently a fourth trade show has appeared trying to gain roots for an east coast spring show. Now, I have nothing against the east coast, but clearly the industry does not need another buying trip for retailers who are over-buying now and whose bloated inventories will be their demise. Manufacturers already offer too much selection and always feel the need to add new products for each new show. Of course this contributes to their bloated inventories as well as their demise. The more scrapbooking trade shows we create the more we add cost to manufacturers and retailers alike. More business is not done by having more trade shows; rather, cost is added to the whole supply chain process with each new trade show. Simply stated, there are not enough style or color changes that are significant enough to have more than two trade shows per year for the scrapbooking industry. This simply means, for the good of all, the new trade show that is now trying to work its way into the industry should not be supported. And, since we have three trade shows now and we only need two, I believe we need to see one of those three trade shows go away. Looking at it objectively, we have two shows that are put on by the industry association CHA, a non-profit association. Those shows happen in the winter and summer with the winter out west and the summer out east. Their timing is perfect and they fit into the cycle of new product introductions. They are bigger than just scrapbooking and help support other segments of the craft industry. The other industry show is towards the end of summer. This show is not run by an association but rather by a very successful, publicly held media giant. The company's focus is profit - it has a need to satisfy its own stock holders. At times, that very same publicly held company finds itself at cross purposes within the industry that its publications serve. Many leading manufacturers now see this media giant as more of a competitor than a group of publications for the craft industry. Since the industry can only afford two trade shows, I am suggesting that, as an industry, we support the change to ensure our own success by clearly getting behind the two CHA shows and fully supporting them and completely withdrawing from the all other trade shows together. The benefits for doing so are many: 1. Reduce overall trade show marketing cost anywhere from 33% to 50% thereby reducing the cost of the product to the retailer, part of which is passed on to the consumer. 2. Reduce the number of new product introductions in an industry over-flooded with new product much of which never becomes a top industry seller. 3. Strengthen the attendance of the two shows rather than weaken the attendance of three to four shows. 4. Supporting the association trade shows creates more exposure for business-related education of the industries it serves. 5. Of course the by-product of all of the above is that it increases turn rates and cash flow. A two-trade-show system would, in effect, raise all the boats in the harbor allowing everyone in their respective areas to increase their own profitability. The only one to make money on additional trade shows is the sponsor of the trade show since they are inventing something that has already been invented. In the end, all it truly does is add cost to an industry that needs to learn to live within its means and not simply survive. Only then will it thrive and flourish to the 15 billion dollar industry it could and should be. And that is what being business SMART is all about.