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02/28/2006: "Tradeshow Changes" by Barney Davey
With the March 3-5 weekend upon us, it is a good time to talk about tradeshows. This year, the 28th annual ArtExpo will be held at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan. ArtExpo remains the largest and most prestigious art tradeshow in the U.S. and arguably the world. It is actually a tradeshow and a consumer show with the first two days, Thursday and Friday, open to the trade only.
Tradeshows have been a mainstay in the arsenal of marketers seeking to get art prints to market. They have been and stay among the most viable means for artists and art publishers to gain awareness and sales. Since tradeshows are a dynamic that continually morphs with changes affect artists and publishers, marketers must be able to keep pace with the changes as they occur.
The past decade has wrought major changes that continue to roil the industry. First, there was the demise of the Professional Picture Framers Association (PPFA) shows. The PPFA was always a small, but important trade organization. Like many small organizations, it suffered from a lack on continuous leadership. New presidents came too often to allow it to make good long-term decisions, especially those that concerned mounting a viable tradeshow that met the needs of all its constituents and its core mission of education.
More importantly, was the rise of importance of the Decor shows for the art industry in both New York and Atlanta. Decor Expo managed to knock out the PPFA shows and at the same time wrest away from ArtExpo a huge chunk of business that only wanted to participate in the trade side of ArtExpo’s events. Meanwhile, the Atlanta show grew from a solidly successful show with 350 booths to nearly 2,000 booths at its zenith.
ArtExpo in the meantime was known for starting more shows that never got off the ground than for anything else. Nonetheless, its New York has managed to hang on to its prestige and many of its customers. ArtExpo has changed its focus to concentrate on bigger and fewer shows. In recent years it has successfully launched a SOLO show allowing single artists without representation to display original works. This year, it announced a new “Show within a Show” called Pavilion. It will highlight original works from 20 high-end galleries.
An example of the abovementioned dynamic is a group of top ArtExpo exhibitors who were unhappy with the show management succeeded with the startup the Fine Art Forum. It runs concurrent with ArtExpo. ArtExpo after years of poor results finally stopped trying to produce a West Coast show. Forays into Northern California and Las Vegas were busts and led to management giving up on the West Coast. This is indicative of how difficult it is to start and grow a successful tradeshow anywhere.
Decor Expo had its troubles on the West Coast as well. As a show with buyers who were daytrippers as opposed to the prized buyers who spend the night, it was unable to maintain its favorable January dates in Long Beach. This created an opening for Picture Framing Magazine (PFM) to step into the show business with its West Coast Art & Frame (WCAF) show in January in Las Vegas.
Many observers gave this show with its mid-week dates and early January schedule no chance to compete. Not too mention that Vegas is known to be a tradeshow killer. Great for conventions, lousy for tradeshows, especially smaller ones was the rap…too much competition for buyers’ attention. The hotels are not inclined to give room rates on weekends in Vegas, making it a tough climate to produce a successful new show.
Undaunted, PFM took its shot and when it saw attendance flat, it added a hefty education component which saved the day. This is an interesting development because education was the problem with PPFA shows. If a buyer is pulled from the show floor to learn something, that can turn down the din on the floor and deaden the experience for the exhibitors. Surprisingly, PFM managed to pull together against the odds and create a continuing evolving show that has gotten better each of the 5 or 6 years of its existence. This against a backdrop of Decor Expo’s new owners killing off its regional shows during the same time.
Decor Expo’s management decided to put its focus on bigger shows and to quit producing the more marginally profitable regional shows. With a debt load to manage from the purchase, such things needed to be carefully considered along with changes in the market. Its management drove to tremendous success in Atlanta. At its high point, the Decor Expo Atlanta show ranked among the largest 200 shows in the U.S. This was quite a feat considering there are literally tens of thousands of shows put on around the country annually.
Unfortunately, the show has not been able to maintain that high booth count. There is buyer-to-exhibitor ratio that shows must maintain to continue to deliver value for exhibitors. The Atlanta show grew to the point of that ratio getting out of favorable numbers and booth sales declined. Granted, the cancellation of the show slated for September 14, 2001 put a major hurt on things, but it is not the primary reason for the decline. It has more to do with the size of the industry and the buyer pool available to attend the show.
There has been a change in the buyer component as well. While all the important art tradeshows, Decor Expos in particular, grew by servicing the small independent retailer; it became harder to use that model as big box retailers such as Bed, Bath & Beyond, Target and Internet retailers like Art.com made huge inroads into the business. The volume of business these operations produced changed the focus of the art publishers and increasingly crowded out independent retailers.
A new show, The Art & Framing Showplace, launched in New York in October 2005, but it was unable to attract enough exhibitors and buyers. Even with its close ties to tradeshow powerhouse, George Little Management (producer of the New York Gift Show and dozens of other top producing shows), it is not likely to continue. The producers had tried a year earlier and cancelled before it began. You only get a couple of chances, if that, to put on a new show. The odds are equal to starting a successful sitcom these days. I just read that Hollywood actress Heather Graham’s new show, (I don’t remember the name, see the problem), cancelled after one episode. That is brutal.
Where does all this leave things today? To start, the New York Decor Expo is withering on the vine. Its 2005 show had many problems and was very costly for exhibitors. The net result is wave of decades long exhibitors at this show have dropped out or reduced to a couple of booths. There are about 100 exhibitors listed on the Decor Expo Website floor plan. Compared to nearly 1,000 booths and hundreds of companies with a waiting list just a few years ago, this is a tragedy for everyone involved. Regardless, this show has lost the most important thing a show has…that is momentum. Once exhibitors begin to lose confidence, a show is on shaky ground. When the very high costs of showing in New York are included and the changing nature of distribution are factored, it makes the decision to quit the show easier.
Another problem is that art publishers now sample all their best buyers before a show. They can’t afford to have an important buyer come to the booth to find new pieces. That would be the kiss of death. So, instead of being an order writing show, or at least place to find new buyers with potential, the show has become more of a place to fly the flag and to PR with buyers. After threatening for years, art publishers have just jumped ship on Decor Expo New York.
Meanwhile, the ArtExpo component seems to be holding its own, if not growing some. That bodes well for the middle part of the market. But, the great promise of bringing the Decor Expo shows from the ill-suited Passenger Ship Piers on the West Side Highway to the Jacob Javits Center to be together and concurrent with ArtExpo has apparently not worked out the way anyone involved could have imagined, or certainly wanted.
The WCAF show continues to grow, but it is constrained in that it has another 50 booths before it hits a waiting list. The show producers are very aware of the buyer-to-exhibitor ratio are not inclined to sell more booths just because they can. This is in part why the show has grown each year. The producers are being rewarded for showing restraint.
I found exhibitors at this year’s show to be in general happy to be there and happy with show management. You can’t ask for much more than that.
Where does this leave you? If you are thinking of tradeshows, Decor Expo New York may no longer be your best bet. However, ArtExpo New York still shows vibrancy. The WCAF show is looking more promising for open edition publishers and some limited edition publishers. There were some higher priced sculptures and prints this year that the show has not seen before.
It will be interesting to see how the Decor Expo Atlanta show fares this year. ArtExpo is not returning after a two-year run of lackluster results for exhibitors in that venue. Bottom line, for veteran companies and new exhibitors is more careful consideration than ever about which shows to attend and at what level of exhibition (how many booths) needs to be given than ever.
Pfingsten Partners LLC, which owns Pfingsten Publishing LLC is rumored to have the company up for sale. When it bought Decor Expo and Decor magazine and other properties in 1999, its long-range plan was to sell within seven years. This year marks the end of that range, so a sale is a good possibility assuming a viable buyer steps up with the right price and financing. Undoubtedly, new ownership will make changes. The industry needs strong leadership in show producers and media companies. Let’s wish for the best outcome for all the people who make their living in the art and framing industry.
