Industry body confirm success of Sydney expo co-location.
When the three industry associations VISA, GASAA and POPAI decided to team‐up with the Retail Exhibition and Conference 2010 last week at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre for the co‐located events the question remained; Would co‐locating the separate but related expos help or hinder visitor numbers?
With the official numbers in, the answer is a resounding success, with show attendance numbers up across the board.
The Visual Impact Suppliers Association has reported a 30% increase in visitors from last year to its VIIE show in Halls 1 & 2 of the SCEC. The Retail Exhibition in Hall 3, organised by Diversified Exhibitions Australia, saw a jump in excess of 20% from the same time last year. The GASAA run PrintWorks Expo 2010, a first time event, added over 1,000 extra visitors to the busy central Hall 2. POPAI's Marketing at Retail Expo increased visitors to its co‐located show also in Hall 2 with a strong visitor registration and movement across all halls.
Aggregate attendance numbers were impressive as well. Total visitors to the VISA/GASAA shows was 4,663 over the 3 days with almost 10% attending the show on more than one day. GASAA Executive Officer, Garry Knespal said that the association was delighted with the early feedback from exhibitors and when drilling down on visitor numbers to the PrintWorks 2010 show the calibre of the attendees was also impressive. 64% of visitors registered for the GASAA show were senior decision makers of which more than a third described themselves as CEO’s or business owners. A further 13% were involved in purchasing and finance, supporting the comments from many exhibitors that high value sales were taken at the show. More than 20% of the GASAA Expo visitors were resident outside of NSW, with 3% of total visitors attending being from abroad including USA, Europe, Asia and Oceania and NZ.
Visitor numbers for the Retail Exhibition were similarly impressive with more than 4,500 people through the related event. Unique visitors to all 4 shows exceeded 6,500 with around 25% of visitors registering to attend more than one of the 4 co‐located events. Around 15% of all show visitors returned to the Expo centre on more than one day. Crossover data between the 3 Halls was also very encouraging. 2,378 visitors were recorded having moved from the POPAI/Retail show into VISA/GASAA events. A similar number (2,421 visitors) moved in the other direction. The strong movement of visitors between the various shows highlighted the interest and relevance of the related expos.
All in all, the co‐location concept worked well to increase visitor traffic for exhibitors and broaden the appeal to show visitors seeking to get a broad perspective of the display, print and retail marketing sectors. Plans are well advanced for the co‐location partners to strengthen ties even further through co‐operation for the 2011 expos.
GASAA
www.gsaa.asn.au
