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If there is one area suffering almost as much as print, it’s events. While trade show revenue dropped 3.5 percent in 2008, it fell a whopping 20.1 percent through the first quarter of 2009, according to American Business Media. Reed Exhibitions (which operates independently of Reed Business Information), saw revenue and adjusted operating profits plunge 22 percent and 26 percent respectively in the first half of the year.
Nielsen Business Media vp of business development Eric Biener says events haven’t fallen as much as print but when they do, it hurts more. “Even small declines have a huge impact on our infrastructure,” he adds.
Hanley Wood enjoyed a record year for its events in 2008 but is experiencing significant declines in 2009 (two long-time executives, exhibitions group president Galen Poss and executive vice president Michael Green, left the company in June). However, it’s 2010 that really concerns CEO Frank Anton.
“The real bad news is that the business in 2010 will take further hits in both exhibit space and attendance, and we’re budgeting accordingly—almost all of the big shows will suffer double digit declines in revenue and earnings,” he adds. “This will be the first time our shows have declined in a meaningful and painful way.”
Part of the problem for b-to-b publishers is that 2009 budgets were set with 2008 expectations. “Going into 2009 we didn’t know what to expect and what we budgeted wasn’t the reality of the market,” says Karl Vontz, director of events for Nielsen’s Adweek Media and CLIO Awards. “We thought we could still grow. Not only did we not grow, it went backwards.”
The New Reality
Many publishers are adapting their events to new market realities. Nielsen is changing the format of some shows to smaller, more targeted events, such as Social Media Strategies, which focused on using Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter for marketing. “People don’t know how to use these channels yet, and we wound up with standing-room only,” says Vontz, who adds that Nielsen expected 180 people but got 210.
For the CLIO Awards, which recognize the best in television commercials, Nielsen is doing a cocktail reception rather than a multi-day conference and multi-hour awards show. It expects 400 attendees. “People get to eat and network and have fun and not get stuck in a three-hour awards show that’s a big yawn,” says Vontz.
Vontz thinks Nielsen has adapted for 2010. “We’re being conservative with numbers and we’re not expecting existing events to grow,” he says. “We’re adding new events for revenue growth. We’re going into 2010 feeling like we can manage this without being in this panic of ‘cut-cut-cut.’ We’re not anticipating the economy to start recovering but if it does, it’s a bonus for us.”
United Business Media’s Everything Channel is having to rethink its approach as well. “Based on the way people got squeezed this year, marketers are going into 2010 with compromised budgets,” says Nancy Hammervik, senior vice president and managing director of Everything Channel Events. “One of the positive outcomes of a challenging market is that it causes you to think smarter. You get as tight as you can while evaluating everything you do.”
Hammervik says publishers can’t expect to grow by existing clients spending more. “Vendors are still coming but they’re spending less money and starting to understand how to work an event where they don’t take advantage of every sponsorship opportunity but just work harder to meet everybody. Our August XChange event is our largest—and was up in the number of vendors but down in the amount of spending.”
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