Redirected Traffic Flow a Success

EVENT: Association for Career and Technical Educations (ACTE) 2007 Convention and Career Tech Expo

2007 MEETING (Dec. 13-15): The last week of November/first week of December is when ACTE typically holds this meeting. Organizers were unsure how the date change would impact attendance. Unexpectedly, it jumped significantly.

CHALLENGE: The 2007 convention took place in the same halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center that held the 2004 convention. In 2004, the general sessions exited into the Grand Lobby, and attendees had to use a separate entrance for the expo, causing a lot of bottle necking. Some attendees gave up on the exhibit hall.

INITIATIVES: Attendees exited directly from general sessions into the exhibit hall, "filling the aisles and making the exhibitors very happy. This was exhibit hall time only, so attendees were able to focus entirely on the products and services of the exhibitors," said Marguerite Leishman, ACTE meetings manager. Traffic generators included workshops along one side, and student demos and a marketplace in both back corners.

MiLB Meeting Hits One Out of the Park

EVENT: Minor League Baseball (MiLB) Winter Meeting

2007 MEETING (Dec. 3-6): Attendance increased slightly in 2007, but it's the exhibitor side of the show that continues to boom. The 2007 show in Nashville turned out the most exhibitors ever and more companies are spending sponsorship dollars at the show. In fact, MiLB sold out of sponsorships for the first time.

CHALLENGE: The trade show involves a unique set of exhibitors: National licensees of Minor League and Major League Baseball range from apparel and hat companies to promotional and gift items. Licensees and sponsors make up about one-third of exhibitors, but attendees have expressed an interest in finding all the licensees in one location.

INITIATIVE: The MiLB modified the exhibit hall layout the association introduced in 2006 in Orlando. Organizers separated the hall into two sections with sponsors and national licensees in the first hall and all other exhibitors in the second hall.

"We started this layout to add value to our sponsors and to satisfy attendee needs to locate licensees all in one grouping," said Noreen Brantner, MiLB manager of exhibition services. "This format seems to work very well."

UPDATE: Charlotte
On the heels of a record bookings year in 2007 -a 9 percent increase over 2006 in Charlotte Convention Center meetings and conventions, non-convention center conferences, and sporting events - Visit Charlotte is continuing its booking momentum in 2008. Q The city continues to see a heavy concentration of national associations in its bookings at the center, with a lighter focus on corporate business. The city's Fortune 500 business provides a strong local basis for meetings, and the NASCAR Hall of Fame, which includes a new cutting-edge facility for pre- and post-event functions and a state-of-the-art ballroom seating 2,500, will increase group options and connect to the center via an over-the-street walkway.