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Paul Woodward, Managing Director of UFI - The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry
You just held your 78th UFI Congress “Bridging Continents – Linking People” from November 9-11, 2011 at the Feria Valencia. Did it fulfil your expectations?
I am delighted to say that the Valencia event exceeded all our expectations. It was the best attended UFI event ever in Europe with almost 400 participants from 52 countries. They responded very positively to the great networking opportunities that such a diverse group presents as well as to speakers and other meetings we organized throughout the week.
To me, it’s a clear testament to the importance of international associations when times are tough that people come together like this. They want to exchange ideas with each other, explore new business opportunities and simply compare notes with their peers. They look to their associations to help raise the profile of the industry and make sure that business is as good as it can be.
On the programme was a panel on the “future of business events”. What will they look like?
This was a very interesting discussion among three real experts coming from slightly outside the exhibitions industry and giving us some great perspective: ICCA’s Martin Sirk, AIPC’s Rod Cameron and the consultant Denzil Rankine definitely painted a clear picture of how things are changing. Martin Sirk told us that we need to be better at getting into our attendees' heads and finding out what they really want, and then make certain we are offering it to them. Rankine suggested that we need to know much better what is keeping our attendees awake at night. We’re moving into a world of mass personalization with events which will differ a lot from industry to industry. This will, Cameron said, produce some real challenges for venue designers and managers as a huge amount of flexibility is required if people don’t really know what tomorrow's events will look like.
There was a good deal of discussion about moving away from thinking about the size of events to focusing on the number of meetings and interactions generated at those events. This means, Sirk told us, that competition is less about cheap square metres than smart venues and quality audience. Getting the right people together will be increasingly important said Denzil Rankine, quoting Reed Exhibitions’ CEO Mike Rusbridge who has commented that “the random contact model is dead”.
Times are tough: Should international associations spend their marketing dollars at trade shows?
That depends on the association and the industry they serve. For the right type of industry, there is still no more effective way for an association to get its members’ messages about technology, products and services in front of the right audience than a trade fair. The best events are thriving even in today’s tough marketplace. When every marketing dollar is being fought over, people want to take less risk. The proven effectiveness of the leading trade fairs means that they are among the last things that most marketers want to cut. You meet real people and you get real leads. You can look your customers in the eye and find out what’s really going on in their business. This makes exhibitions hard to beat.
Which role do they play for global fairs?
Associations are closely woven into the fabric of international exhibitions as organizers, as supporters of fairs, as exhibitors, as contributors to conference programmes and, last but not least, as visitors. There are very few international trade fairs which would be successful without their international association partnerships. This is not going away any time soon; the fairs need the associations to thrive and, we like to think, vice versa.
What are the top three challenges for UFI these days?
Firstly, I would say that the biggest challenge and opportunity is adapting what we do to meet the needs of the increasingly global mix of our membership. We now have members in 84 countries and continue to see strong growth in Asia, Latin America and, increasingly, Africa and the Middle East. Like many international associations, our roots are in Europe and that now only represents about half of our membership. The needs of our members vary a lot around the world and we have to address that at the same time presenting a unified global face to the industry when that is required.
Secondly, I think that we, along with the industry that we serve, have to work very hard right now to understand how technology is interacting with our industry. Very few now see the internet and social media as a threat, but very few have yet properly been able to grasp the opportunity that it represents. We strongly believe that the companies in our industry which are most successful in the future will effectively ‘marry’ the power of face-to-face communication at exhibitions with the universal, year-round reach of e-media. UFI has to recognize and embrace that change, use it ourselves and help our members to understand it.
Finally, in the short/medium term, we face the same challenge as everybody else in a time of great economic uncertainty. Although our members in Asia and Latin America have been less impacted, the challenges of these times are putting pressure on everybody’s business. We need to make sure that we are offering members value for their time and money, providing them with the new business opportunities and cutting edge thinking that will get them through this crisis.
You just ran an UFI membership survey. What are the biggest benefits for your members?
Our members consistently tell us that the biggest benefit of UFI membership is being part of our global network. We are constantly looking to find ways to enhance the value of that network as well as to expand it through new members. Other benefits include access to the latest industry research and special education programmes. Members can help to shape our industry promotion campaigns and participate in our government lobbying activities when they wish. And, finally, all of our exhibition organizer members (75% of the total) must have at least one UFI Approved Event. This quality seal of approval dates back to the very beginnings of UFI 86 years ago and the 900+ UFI Approved Events around the world are clearly recognized as the leading trade fairs in the markets they serve.
UFI, The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry is the association of trade show organisers, fairground owners, national and international associations of the exhibition industry, and its partners. As of 2011, it has more than 550 members from 84 countries. UFI’s main goal is to represent, promote and support the business interests of its members and the exhibition industry. www.ufi.org