NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland — Extraordinary times call for extraordinary efforts, and trade show organizers have stepped up their efforts by going virtual, finding new ways to collaborate, and discovering ways to engage attendees and meet customer needs online throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trade Fair Manager The editors and research team identified organizers who went above and beyond and honored them at the CEIR Predict conference.
The winners were invited on stage to receive their awards, designed by 4imprint, at the end of the first day of the CEIR Predict conference, held September 13-14 at the MGM National Harbor in National Harbor, Maryland.
Because a lot of what EAST depends on research — EAST was one of the founding sponsors of the CEIR index — EAST had the data to identify outstanding achievements at trade shows.
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“When CEIR approached us about creating special awards in advance of the CEIR Predict conference, we were excited to have the opportunity to celebrate industry leaders—it’s one of our favorite things to do!” Gabrielle Weiss, Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of EASTsaid. “We thought this was a great idea and a wonderful way to join CEIR in celebrating industry leaders, innovation and aligning with CEIR on our love of industrial data.”
EAST and CEIR moved quickly to implement plans to recognize organizers that demonstrated innovation during the pandemic. To create the awards and identify the winners, TSE combed through its TSE Dashboard and proprietary data bank to identify shows that demonstrated innovation, were able to adapt and meet customer expectations, and used collaboration and unity to better serve its members and help the industry move forward.
“While we cannot predict the course of COVID-19 or the Delta variant, we can most certainly predict that the talent of our industry, the resilience of remarkable organizers, and the entrepreneurial spirit of these leaders will prevail,” said Rick Simon, president and CEO of United Service Companies, TSE’s parent organization. “We saw this as an opportunity to recognize and celebrate some of those leading and innovating through the pandemic at this year’s CEIR event.”
And the prizes went to…
- The impressive transition to virtual pricing went to the International Promotional Products Association (PPAI) for its PPAI Expo Direct-2-You. The four-day show, held in January 2021, hosted 495 virtual booths and 10,753 distributor attendees and 6,355 unique visitors. What made this virtual show so impressive was how PPAI created pop-up virtual experiences to break up the day with cooking demos, yoga sessions, pet pop-ups, live caricature artist drawing sessions, a comedy café, interactive gaming, and dueling piano bar experiences. PPAI also hosted an awards night, an after-hours on-demand education and product pavilion for continued viewing while the show was closed. It also held training sessions for exhibitors and attendees before the show, so that everyone was ready to navigate the show platform and do business, and delivered product sample boxes during the show to attendees who purchased them.
- The award for best digital engagement went to the American Pet Products Association (APPA) and the Pet Industry Distributors Association (PIDA) for the Global Pet Expo Digital Access, held in March 2021. Buyers and 282 exhibiting companies from more than 80 countries flocked to the digital show; the total of 7,282 attendees made 34,000 connections, according to EAST Buyers made over 140,000 visits to exhibitor profiles and product showrooms. The novelty of this digital event was that the 42 training sessions were accessible to all attendees, generating over 5,000 session views.
“On behalf of the APPA team, I was delighted to accept the Trade Fair Manager “We won the 2021 Outstanding Digital Engagement Award,” said Steven King, CAE, APPA President and CEO. “Like many organizations, APPA had to pivot from an in-person event to a digital event this year. Our amazing team did an amazing job building a digital event from scratch in just a few months. We had attendees from the pet care community around the world and higher attendance at our educational sessions than ever before. Thank you for this recognition.”
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- The price of innovative collaboration went to a collaborative effort between Informa Markets, Clarion Events and the Tarsus Groupwhich co-located its MAGIC Pop Up Orlando, WWNI Orlando Showcase and OFFPRICE trade shows at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando this past February. Typically competitors, the three trade show organizers have teamed up to offer retail fashion buyers the opportunity to attend these three major trade shows in one place and at one time, during the unusual stresses the pandemic has placed on the industry.
“It is more important than ever for key players in the event industry to come together and work together to meet the needs of our brands and buyers in the safest, most thoughtful and most effective way,” said Kelly Helfman, President of Commercial, Informa Markets Fashion. EAST at the time. In addition to adhering to AllSecure guidelines, this collaboration was the first U.S. trade show to offer COVID-19 testing at the event.
“On behalf of CEIR, congratulations to the Promotional Products Association International for its PPAI Expo Direct-2-You; to the American Pet Products Association for its Global Pet Expo Digital Access; and to the collaboration of Informa Markets, Clarion Events and the Tarsus Group,” said Cathy Breden, CMP, CAE, CEM, CEO of CEIR.
Contact Gabrielle Weiss at (312) 493-7753 or gweiss@tradeshowexecutive.com; Rick Simon at (312) 922-8558 or rsimon@unitedhq.com; Steven King at (203) 532-3654 or sking@americanpetproducts.org; and Cathy Breden at (972) 687-9201 or cbreden@iaee.com