Can you imagine the purchasing power and resources a few dozen (or hundred) shows would have? If a venue wanted the business from any of them, they’d have to provide rates and services acceptable to the co-op (or trade association, or whatever).

If a venue wanted to be an approved location, they would have to offer transparency and fall within certain guidelines. Their upside obviously is that as long as they make the co-op happy, the co-op will continue to send them far more business than any one show could hope to offer.

Heck for all the money involved, a large enough co-op could actually buy it’s own venue(s) and cut out the middlemen. Whatever the result, I’ve found that working together (even with competitors) tends to work better than getting screwed one-by-one.

Just thinking out loud - but if any group was capable of organizing this type of thing, you’d think professional event organizers would be

So, now that you have some time on your hands, how about starting that Trade Show association/union/group that reps trade shows to convention centers?

> High speed Internet costs.

ditto. There is a fine line between legitimate and gratuitous monopolistic price gouging. We are seeing the later at many convention centers. These are exclusive agreements at these shows and they know they have a monopoly and you have no choice.

> Drayage

I have tried to produce a way around Drayage, and have not been able too. Atleast with a general contractor, we have a choice and there is competition.

> The Pay to Play Mentality.

Yep, we run up against it all the time. We try to draw the line, but often, who are the most qualified speakers? It is tough to have a session about Windows Vista Internals without someone from Microsoft on the panel. At the same time, you know they are going to be in the expo hall as well. Which came first - the session or the sponsorship dollars?

>Room Blocks & Attrition.

Ouch. It is a tough nut to crack. I don’t know the answer, other than to low ball your room block figure at the start and demand a 30 day opt out clause.

>5) Lack of Control Over The Customer Experience

Agreed. Dealing with venues and outside vendors is difficult. I think we have all been in those situations before.

I would like to start a trade show “union” to represent shows to venues and vendors.

Hear, hear! Every point you made is solid and dead on!

When I started planning the first WordCamp Dallas last year, I contacted the Dallas Chamber of Commerce who put out the word to every hotel and convention center that I was looking for a venue. Every one of them offered the ballroom(s) for free, but I’d have to agree to outrageous room blocks (this was supposed to be primarily for DFW-area residents, after all), plus pay for catering, A/V, WiFi, etc.

I know the hotel needs to make money, but they need to learn to be competitive! In the end, I decided to go true unconference style and hold the event at what was essentially a free venue. We practically broke even, which was fine because it was never intended to be a for-profit event.

I can only imagine how maddening this Mickey Mouse, nickle-and-dime thuggery can be, and you have my sympathies. You’re a good influence on the tradeshow industry, and it’d be a real shame should you decide to leave on account of the hassle:reward ratio.

Lot of thoughts about alternative venues and destinations - they should be explored. If you can attract the same audience in a destination like Indianapolis over Las Vegas at a lower cost you should do it. I don’t think your final attendance numbers will support that decision. Similar with other forms of media, you pay more for a 30 second TV spot during the Superbowl than other programming, why - audience… If someone in Las Vegas will discount and dare to be compared to Indianapolis you have found a weak link, take advantage.

What does Right to Work Mean? There is some confusion that hosting a meeting in Nevada, a right to work state, means the influence of organized labor should be less, as we know it is not… Let me help. Right to Work means a worker has the right to work in a job and not join the union. For example, a server in Las Vegas has the right to work in a hotel and not pay Culinary dues, his job duties, pay & benefits will still be determined by the collective bargaining agreement signed by his employer, but he has a right to work without paying dues. Most don’t choose to be represented without the ability to vote their wishes.

What Right to Work does not mean is that you can hold a meeting in a hotel and your exhibitors can perform any work that they wish. This scope of work is determined when the show organizer signs a contract with the contractor. That agreement determines who does what work. If you hire a union contractor that contractors agreement will support the CBA that they have signed.

Hope this helps. There are more non-union friendly destinations, some are even not right to work states. Where, 2nd and 3rd tier cities…. ie. Indianapolis.

So we finish where we started, pick your destination based on attendance capture, price accordingly based on attendance and the costs will be commensurate with the marketing opportunity.

Thanks for taking the time to verbalize the frustrations on the back end of something as large and powerful as NME. I’ve been in event/conference planning for 5 years and always find it hard to balance making the venue, sponsors and attendees happy with all costs involved. You can have a great venue and pay for it, but then have to charge sponsors/attendees more in order to cover costs and make a profit. Every little thing costs money and it’s often hard to negotiate with larger venues, such as convention centers.

I completely echo what others have listed about considering changing cities in order to find a less expensive, but equally impressive venue. It’s at least worth it to compare costs and use to go back to your Vegas venue in order to negotiate a better cost with them, if possible.

One other suggestion, if you haven’t already considered it…I used to host conferences for 800-1000 people in Indianapolis. We got better deals on our conference rooms and needs because we hosted the event in a hotel and were able to block rooms, at a discounted rate, for our attendees. We often got all of our conference rooms for free due to the room guarantees we worked with the hotel. I’m happy to give more info if you need it.

Thank you again for sharing the back side with your attendees and sponsors in a professional and well thought out manner. I am saving this article for reference in my career as an Event Planner.
*Cheers,
Karen

It was good to hear the organizer of the event voice frustrations shared by attendees and exhibitors alike, that certainly improved the customer relationship in a challenging situation and I appreciate your frankness. I sincerely hope you stick with it and I am especially looking forward to next year’s NME after this kind of community brainstorming. Thank you!