Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/838473
FROM THE PUBLISHER Making Your Time at the Show Count SPECIALTY FOOD ASSOCIATION MEMBERS: Discuss this topic in the Solution Center on specialtyfood.com T he 2017 Summer Fancy Food Show should be a much more productive experience for food buyers and sellers. Why? Because fewer people will be there. Chris Crocker Senior Vice President, Content & Media ccrocker@specialtyfood.com Beginning with its Winter 2017 Show, the Specialty Food Association introduced a new qualification process to help increase the concentration of trade buyers in atten- dance, which required registrants to provide documentation of their business. The result was a minor drop in attendance, and a meaningful increase in buyer density. Building on learnings from San Francisco, that quali- fication program has been extended—and fine-tuned—for the Summer Show in New York. And there is an additional wrinkle: the first increase in buyer badge pricing in eight years. Why, if you're trying to increase the concentration of buyers at the show, would you increase the price? Because it has proven to be the most effective way to make the experi- ence better for the companies that exhibit and the compa- nies that buy their products. Until the late 1990s, access to the Fancy Food Show was free to the trade. Qualification was based on an honor system: If you said you were a part of the trade, you were a part of the trade. But Sundays at the show became so crowd- ed, it was nearly impossible to move through the aisles. After some analysis—and some hand-wringing—the Association implemented a registration fee. The result was immediate and impactful, filtering out many who had only a personal interest in specialty food and reducing attendance that year by as much as 30 percent. The message heard from the buyers and sellers, though, was that the shows were manageable again. Since that time, attendance at the shows built back up. Buyers from all types of retail, foodservice, and on- line platforms f locked to the show—and so did an ar- ray of industry affiliates, including companies that offer everything from equipment to investment to shipping to packaging. The aisles became overcrowded and difficult to navigate. One observer ref lected that a badge at the Fancy Food Show was clearly "still the cheapest meal ticket in Manhattan." Some exhibitors and observers view a busy show as successful, as do some organizers who count every single person in the convention center as a qualified attendee. Those who come to trade shows to evaluate products for resale, however, have a different point of view, as do ex- hibitors who gauge results. Buyers need to find as many appropriate products as they can in the time they have available. Exhibitors want to connect with buyers, not spend their energy def lecting attendees who don't directly inf luence a trade buying de- cision or, even worse, have their limited show time eaten up with sales pitches from service providers. The show is most efficient when it creates business-to-business inter- actions between those who sell food with the profession- als who buy food. So, don't be surprised if you see attendance drop at this year's Summer Fancy Food Show. Chances are, you'll make more connections that matter. SUMMER 2017 5