As I looked for shows to contact for my recent story about promotions shows are offering to keep their attendees driving to shows despite the climbing cost of gasoline, I found hotels are doing the same thing.

 

It seems the United States has gone crazy about gas prices – and not in a good way.

 

Once oil started topping record prices per barrel and gas in many regions hit $4 or more a gallon (my most recent fill up in Los Angeles was $4.59 a gallon, if it makes anyone feel better), the stories started that people are driving less and staying home more, postponing planned summer vacations.

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Politics are always a hot-button topic during a presidential election year, and it’s one that trickles over to every industry.

Tradeshows are no different. Candidates have the opportunity to use tradeshow appearances to speak to certain industry sectors and make those personal connections to voters that have been so important in the past few races.

My perception has been that the campaigns, while obviously overworked trying to win a presidential race, are working to show that every vote counts – even having candidate appearances in the smallest towns and cities, including a city I used to live in, New Philadelphia, Ohio. In 2004, President Bush stopped in to buy candy from a local shop; John Edwards, then a vice presidential candidate, held a rally.

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Sometimes it’s hard to be a reporter.

You know what’s going on, but you’re not sure when, if ever, you’ll be able to print the real news.

That’s why I was surprised last week when the Society of the Plastics Industry finally confirmed that Freeman would be the general service contractor for next year’s NPE – The Intl. Plastics Showcase.

Tradeshow Week staff heard about the show’s possible move from GES Exposition Services to Freeman more than six months ago – about the time NAB switched from GES to Freeman.

For weeks, Contributing Editor Gary Tufel and I tried unsuccessfully to get confirmation the move might occur. We were told by a Freeman spokeswoman to contact SPI. No one at SPI would return my phone call. The show’s spokesman said he didn’t ...Read More

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With the housing crisis, the weak dollar, record-high oil prices and the impending recession, the economy’s a hot topic in the media.

So when I went to the Craft & Hobby Assn. Winter Annual Convention & Trade Show, it was one of the things those of us in the office wanted to know: How do exhibitors expect their industry to do in an economic recession?

I was the perfect person for Tradeshow Week to send into the crafting trenches. If it’s not a craft I’ve done, I can guarantee I’ve seen my mother try it. So, had I searched my memory, the answer exhibitors gave for their outlook on the industry wouldn’t have surprised me. In fact, it made a lot of sense after hearing it the first time, not to mention the 10th or 11th times.

“People stay home and make things,” exhibitor J.R. Dryden of Falk Indu...Read More

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For a reporter, being accused of bias is one of the harshest criticisms to endure, because objectivity is an essential quality of what we do.

 

When that sentiment comes my way, it’s always a surprise to me, as it was when Tradeshow Week received a letter to the editor after the first story I wrote about the Natl. Council of La Raza (and the Natl. Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People and Southern Christian Leadership Conference, in support). The group was considering pulling its NCLR 2009 Annual Conference and Latino Expo USA from Kansas City, Mo., in protest over the mayor’s appointment of an active member of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps. to the city’s parks board.

 

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