I’m gathering up all the things I need to take to the STAFDA show which begins Sunday evening. I have not been to the STAFDA show for a few years and I am looking forward to it. At the Vegas Fastener Show, I pretty much know what I am getting year after year. I do not go to STAFDA consistently enough to remember exactly how the show is set up or even everyone who will be attending or exhibiting. Also, STAFDA changes locations from year to year, so that shakes things up a bit.
But, I think I know the Vegas show pretty well. I think I do. But, I recently exchanged several emails with Bob Baer of Abbott Interfast Corporation about the Vegas show and our back and forth emails brought up some interesting things about the show. You see, Bob just completed a post fastener show interview with Brian and Eric for Fully Threaded Radio. Bob and others were asked to do a show re-cap and that is why were exchanging thoughts about the show – he was doing some preparation before the interview. And, just to fill in some background on Bob, he is a CPA and an accountant by training. His role at Abbott Interfast has expanded over the years, but Bob is a numbers guy. I am going to take the liberty of sharing a few of the numbers that Bob and I tossed back and forth that come directly from the Vegas Show post show data. I hope the data is exact but, if it is not I think it is at least pretty accurate.
According to the data shared by show management, the overall badge count was 4,322 – of those 1,939 were attendees and 2,383 were exhibitors. And, don’t forget, one person’s exhibitor is the next person’s customers. A lot of exhibitors are also customers to other exhibitors.
Of the overall badge count, 75% were from the U.S., 9.3% from China, 5.7% from Taiwan and 4.3% from Canada.
Of the exhibitor badge count, 69% were from the U.S., 16% from China, 8.5% from Taiwan and 1.5% from Canada. Maybe a little surprised that there were more from China than Taiwan.
Of attendee badge count, 81% were from the U.S. 7.6% from Canada, 2.6% from Mexico, 2.3% from China and 1.1% from Taiwan. No big surprises there. There were attendees from 37 different countries.
This was interesting – the companies with the highest badge counts were Brighton Best (90), Star (35), Stelfast (23), AVK and Unbrako with 17 each and Alcoa with 15. A lot of this makes sense as several of these companies have branches spread around the country.
There were 185 independent reps (9.5% of attendees – as most are registered independently from exhibitors). There were 117 service folks which I’d guess are people like computer system people.
There were 478 first time attendees so clearly the show is still attracting fresh blood. And there were 340 first time exhibitors (people, not booths or companies).
Finally, (and I’ll stop after this so I do not bore you to death) the top 5 states represented at the show were:
California – 643
Illinois – 444
Ohio – 345
Michigan – 270
Texas – 228
So, what does all this data tell us? I don’t know. Data can be interpreted many different ways. A few things I cannot help but notice is the strong Midwest (IL, OH, MI) representation at the show. Especially when you figure that the 90 Brighton people were all registered as coming from CA, and then I’m guessing a lot of CA attendees can drive anyways. The show does seem to attract the eastern part of the country and not just the west. The percentage of Asian suppliers is not surprising, though the data shows badge counts and not booth counts. Clearly, Asian suppliers are trying to sell more fasteners to domestic distributors and there is nothing surprising about that.
One small point I’ll make is in regards to the amount of time the show is open. Bob pointed out to me that if you add up the hours the show is open and multiply that number by minutes in an hour (60) you get 660 show minutes. There were over 800 booths sold this year, understanding that several exhibitors had more than one booth. But, even if you were to cut the number of booths by half, you could not spend more than 2 minutes per booth and get to every booth. It is nearly impossible to see everything there is to see at the show, especially when a lot of people skip the show on Friday. Most exhibitors cringe when someone mentions staying open longer because attendance on the second day is so greatly reduced. But I sincerely do not think you can get all the meetings and personal visits done in the allotted time. There are so many people attending, it is hard to get quality time with more than a dozen or two dozen people and that is probably why some companies bring so many people to work the show.
Anyways, I’m soon off to STAFDA and will try to report some observations from that show. Vegas was again a very good show but I planned ahead and set up some meetings that made it a good show. It is always the case, it is how you prepare for and work the show that makes it a good or bad show.
TS:
Had an opportunity to talk to some folks from Star at the recent MWFA scholarship dinner this week and found out that some, if not many, of the registered attendees may be been spouses ?
I guess if you plan to attend the bash (a very beneficial & nice event, I will admit) with your guest, you are forced to register them in order to secure them a badge. Since the data does not specifically notate whether every registered guest is actually attending the show, it is possible that the numbers are high. Of all the shows in our industry, the Vegas show no doubt attracts the most spouses/guests.
It would be great if Mike can comment on this as well. If this type of data was not captured, then I would ask the show management to begin capturing next year and reporting it with the rest of the statistics.
TS:
Thanks for your commentary.
FYI, Expo Management conducted a recent in-depth survey of exhibitors, the results of which which were overwhelmingly in favor of retaining the current format of one full day of educational & training programs and meetings followed by a one and one half day Expo. We plan the event based upon the consensus, and are always open to change.
Also, we received more complimentary and positive remarks about this year’s Expo than ever before in our proud 34-year history.
We eagerly look forward to seeing everyone at the “World’s Largest Fastener & Mill Supply Expo”, October 21-23, 2015 in Las Vegas.
For more information, contact Susan Hurley, General Manager, at (614) 895-1279, email [email protected] or visit our website at http://www.fastenershows.com.
Have a great year!
Jim Bannister
General Partner
Jim, I totally agree with your approach of asking the participating exhibitors for their input. And, I give you credit for listening to them. Makes plenty of sense. I just wonder if some of them really think it through. You’ve managed to get the largest collection of industry personnel assembled and it would seem like a great, great time for meetings (at booth and in private) with important customers and suppliers. Thursday is always so busy, I just cannot imagine you can get it all in. And we all can admit that Friday is a bit slower, probably because of Thursday night partying (I’m a bit guilty there, especially with promoting the Bourbon Room). So, some of what I shared was just food for thought. Like I said, I’m not sure exactly what the stats I shared mean. Who knows, someday the Vegas Show might be 1-1/2 days starting Wednesday at noon with a big speaker and then exhibits from 1:00-5:00 and then a whole day of exhibits Thursday. Maybe Friday becomes a day of pre-scheduled meetings between suppliers and distributors with conference rooms set aside for meetings. All said and done, the show is great, I enjoy it every year and I always come away with something good. Just kicking around some ideas to see if anybody suggests something interesting.