Big Attendance Numbers Mark Final Spring Meeting for ACS

Event: American College of Surgeons (ACS) Annual Spring Meeting

2007 MEETING (April 22-25):
The substantial increase in the number of attendees had a two-fold explanation, according to Jackie Mitchell, ACS exhibits and convention services manager: 1) the appeal of a new location (ACS had never held the spring meeting in Las Vegas); and 2) the association had decided last year to discontinue the spring meeting indefinitely, so the last event had an added appeal.

Challenge: While holding the meeting in Las Vegas definitely helped boost the attendance, the association had difficulties securing needed additional rooms, even before the cutoff date. Organizers also felt that due to a focus on leisure travel, hotels at times failed to prioritize attendee needs. "However, our initial concern of attendees not attending our sessions for the purpose of seeing sites didn't play out," said Tamara Roberts, CMP, meetings manager. "Most of our session rooms were full throughout the entire day."

TREND: Prior to 2007, overall attendance at the meeting has been gradually declining, while the cost of the meeting has been gradually increasing. Organizers attribute the decline in registration to increased competition from other groups' meetings, as well as the organization's inability to change the meeting format in order to remain competitive in the market.

INITIATIVES: ACS tried a new express registration system provided by a contracted registration company. The system enabled the association to avoid mailing badges in advance of the meeting, saving mailing costs. The technology allowed staffers to scan confirmation barcodes and to print credentials on site extremely quickly.

Weather Batters ARF Convention

Event: Annual Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) Annual Convention and Expo

2007 MEETING (April 16-18): Always in New York

Challenge: Pre-registration figures greatly exceeded 2006, and ARF was expecting more than 1,500 attendees on site. But severe weather in New York area limited fly-in traffic for the first two days of the show. "The weather was absolutely terrible," said Rick Boale, ARF director of events. "The hotel and others suffered because no one could get in or out of New York. I am glad we had convention interruption insurance."

TRENDs: Sponsors of the event are becoming more critical of the financial success of each event due to the rising cost of producing them, especially in New York City. ARF sponsors also contribute session and research content, so their effect is far-reaching beyond finances. As the conference grows - with 2008 expected to be much larger than 2007 - the exhibitors are a fundamental part of that growth. The exposition grew 10 percent in 2007 and will leap another 20 percent next year in total number of exhibitors. With those spikes, more content will be offered. "We have enough educational content for three conventions, so we will be doing more events as we go," Boale said. n