PERSPECTIVE: New Manufacturing Show Makes Commitment To Its Exhibitors

John Wolz

Most fastener manufacturers are required by customers to go through various forms of quality certifications, and the new fastener manufacturing trade show is making an equivalent commitment to its exhibitors.
Show management announced that the first Industrial Fastener & Forming International trade show will be audited by ABC Expomark, a trade show auditing firm.\
IFFI will be June 5-7, 2001, at the Cleveland (OH) Convention Center. The show is designed primarily for fastener machinery makers and suppliers to exhibit to fastener manufacturers. It is sponsored by the Industrial Fasteners Institute (IFI) and the International Fastener Machinery Association (IFMA).
IFFI becomes the only current fastener trade show being audited.
IFI members are prime attendees for the show, and the audit will tell how well the manufacturers� organization did its job of bringing in customers for exhibitors.
�We just feel it is the right thing to do,� IFI managing director Rob Harris told FIN.
Harris noted that almost all fastener manufacturers have some form of quality certifications, such as ISO, QS or A2LA.
�If our member companies are audited, our performance should be audited too,� Harris said.
The trade show audit will create �a solid and correct baseline� for the new show and assure exhibitors that �these numbers can be believed,� Harris explained.
According to ABC Expomark, a trade show audit helps exhibition organizers by �proving your attendance claims and demographic profiles� and �enhances your promotional efforts.�
An audit �demonstrates your willingness to be accountable to exhibitors and challenges your competitors to meet the same standard,�
Though trade show audits have developed in recent years, ABC Expomark is a division of the nonprofit Audit Bureau of Circulations, which has been auditing publishers� circulation claims for decades.
Exposition audits are catching on in the trade show industry. A total of 78% of respondents in a Trade Show Week poll plan to have their 2002 shows audited. And 71% believe the audits �exert a positive influence� on trade shows.
IFFI is not the first fastener show to be audited. The predecessor International Fastener & Precision Formed Parts Manufacturing Exposition (IFE), was owned by Reed Exhibition Companies. Reed has a corporate policy of having all of its 300+ shows audited.
Christopher McCabe, the Reed vice president in charge of the 1999 IFE, told FIN at the time that auditing �focuses� show management on getting quality attendees to the show. An audit may add pressure on show management one year, but good traffic pleases exhibitors and makes it easier to sell booths for the next show, McCabe explained.
�2001 FastenerNews.com