AFTER a strong debut last year, exhibitors and Hosted Buyers at Imex America 2012 are powering up for another award-winning event. The show which runs from October 9 to 11 at the Sands Expo in Las Vegas is already 20 per cent bigger than last year.
Carina Bauer, CEO of Imex Group, speaks to TTN about what makes this a must-attend show.
How is Imex America 2012 shaping up and what can visitors and hosted buyers expect at this year’s event?
We’ve got a lot of enhancements and growth in store for Imex America 2012.
First there will be more destinations, services and products to learn about and do business with – for example, to date we will welcome 50 new stands and 20 per cent of returning exhibitors are taking more space. In fact the show is set to be around 20 per cent bigger than last year.
For buyers, we’ve streamlined our popular on-line appointment scheduling system to make it more efficient to field meeting requests, and we’ve extended free Wifi and transportation services to all hosted buyers and buyer attendees.
On the education front, our on-floor Inspiration Center (formerly the Learning Curve Zone) and Sustainability Hub will offer new drop-in workshops, campfires and forums.
During Smart Monday, powered by MPI- a day of free, top notch professional education on October 8, Personal Development Deep Dive sessions have been added including – two leadership sessions, one leadership through storytelling session and one assertiveness session.
We are also pleased to be enhancing the Imex Association Focus & Evening (a program dedicated to the education and networking of association executives) as part of Smart Monday with more sessions and peer-to-peer learning, a keynote and new education tracks for executive, global and meetings interests.
On the technology education side, we have lots of new things planned including an iPad Bar, which provides a hands-on chance to understand more about meeting and event apps using your own iPad or one provided at the bar. Also following a successful launch at Imex in Frankfurt, we will be working with the team from howtobesocial at Imex America who will be on the show floor helping exhibitors and visitors understand how to use social media better – be it for promoting a booth, sharing photos, or creating polls.
Additionally, The Imex America App (available for iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry devices) has been upgraded. It now includes a two-way live diary feature. Appointments made on the Imex America website are now synchronised immediately with the app (and vice versa) meaning that buyers can add and move individual appointments in their business schedule during the show.
Last but certainly not least we will have an expanded community legacy effort through the Clean the World Hotel amenities recycling and donation program which attendees can get involved in plus a “Sustainability Safari” – as a part of Association Focus – which takes the form of a guided tour behind the scenes of Imex America sharing some of the green and sustainable planning that drives Imex America and providing tips and ideas.
Finally we’ll be working hard to be even greener at this year’s show itself which we’ll be benchmarking against the new Apex standards.
How many exhibitors /hosted buyers can we expect to see at the show?
We expect over 7,000 people at the show broken down into the following categories:
Exhibitors – there will be well over 2,000 exhibiting companies, comprising over 1,000 companies from the US and Canada; with the remainder of companies from Global exhibitors representing up to 150 countries.
Buyers – Attendees will meet and make new connections with over 2,000 hosted buyers and around 1,000 non-hosted buyers and planners from across the world, including around 80 per cent from North America. This year, there will also be a significant increase in buyers from global markets including Asia and South America.
Associations – Imex America partners with over 30 meetings and events industry associations.
What are your expectations in terms of business generated from the show this year?
At Imex America 2011 hosted buyers estimated that they would generate over $2 billion worth of business during and in the 12 months following the show. With the number of buyers attending due to be larger this year we expect at least as much business to be generated from the show.
Are you seeing more Interest from the Middle East participants?
There are a number of Middle Eastern destinations and service providers exhibiting this year including Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority and Dubai, plus hotel groups including Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts. There is certainly a lot of interest and potential for these exhibitors to win a slice of the growing US outbound market.
What is your message to corporate event managers to deliver better results?
Attendees are increasingly looking for strong value and ROI, high quality and novelty and an increased focus on learning and interaction. Planners should also look to better understand delegate needs and intentions in terms of learning; encourage deeper dialog; downplay general and one-size fits all keynotes; and accommodate multiple learning styles. Further, attendees are looking for more pre and post show communication via Apps and social media and the chance to build more lasting online communities around events. They would like to also play a larger and more interactive role in the content developed for the events and meetings they attend.