Several of our colleagues and contributors were at the 2012 National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) Show in Orlando last week and provided some observations on the event.
“Ever thought what would happen if someone put on a trade show and no one showed up?” Gary Donatell related to us. “That’s not exactly what happened, but attendance was down due to someone named ‘Sandy.’”
Gary is with CenterPoint Exhibits in St Paul, MN, and was at the show prospecting and renewing relationships.
Some reports had the attendance down by as much as 9,000, though we don’t have attribution from NBAA to either prove or discount that figure., Gary told us.
“My perspective also may have been skewed in that I didn’t walk the show until the last day of the event,” Gary continued. “By then many of the attendees had been there, done that, and were headed elsewhere, hopefully not where superstorm Sandy had landed.”
Another attendee had similar observations. A writer and industry observer, he told us:
“NBAA was okay the first day, but dead on days 2 and 3,” he said. “However, I was very busy the whole show with editors and publishers, and missed more than a dozen people who stopped by without appointments,” he related.
In this observer’s opinion, there are three reasons for the apparently weaker show:
- General market flatness in the aviation industry.
- Superstorm Sandy either kept visitors from the show entirely or caused them to go home after Day 1 to deal with family, power and water issues.
- Visitors who went home on Wednesday (day 2) to be with kids for Halloween.
Peggy Keene of Esterline Technologies also noted the downturn in traffic.
“NBAA was a good show for us,” Peggy told us. “Even though (there was) substantially lower attendance, our meetings went well. But we’re all about the meetings, not the walk-up traffic,” she said.
Gary continued: “The exhibitors I talked to didn’t appear disappointed with the show’s attendance, as it appeared those who did make it were serious buyers,” he said. “And from an exhibit designer/producer’s perspective, there were several new exhibits on the floor.”
So with the election results close, the economy starting to turn upward, the indicator that is the aviation industry showed itself at NBAA. Lower, more qualified traffic, attention by the press and some new exhibits are probably good indicators.
Relentless
