SISO Update April 21, 2008
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A Bi-Weekly Aggregated News Service
From The Society of Independent Show Organizers

Feature: Tips from the Event Doctor!
Wrap-Up - The SISO CEO Summit, April 6-9, 2008, St. Petersburg, Florida

Although the heavens opened as most of the attendees arrived at the 2008 SISO CEO Summit, it certainly didn't dampen the excitement or indeed the expectations of this year's event in (normally) sunny St. Petersburg. Titled Strategies, Trends and Fundamentals, the Summit promised to have something for the cream of the crop of North America's for-profit event leadership, with healthy contingents from Asia, Europe (particularly Germany), Australia and Latin America. The weather improved as the week progressed, leaving broad sun by the golf and croquet tournaments at the end, in additional to a warm final banquet on Tuesday night.

My expectations are always high for these events and usually exceeded. It's hard to feel like an outsider at these events, although I should add that donning a white lab coast and stethoscope doesn't hurt either. The appeal of this event is clear for Jeff Little of George Little Management LLC who said, "The CEO Summit is not just an event I have to attend, it's one I want to attend." It's not hard to understand why. Every meal is provided for, it feels like the return of old friends when you go to a SISO event, and the only difference is that these friends are here to talk business, so the value of the transactions that come out of here is certainly in the millions.

I started at the Mentor/Mentee Reception where I was partnered with the always sunny Sean Guerre, President of the Tradefair Group and a member of the Access Intelligence team. The SISO Board set this reception up for the first time attendees to the Summit, so an experienced SISOnite is paired with a newbie. Among the experienced I ran across were Cherif Moujabber, Phil McKay, Nancy Hasselback, and Don Pazour. When a new person arrived, one of them always made a beeline toward him/her, which was very impressive. In general, I find it easy to mingle at SISO events. There is no sense of an impenetrable 'boys club,' which is very different than what I might have expected.

From there we headed into the Royal Foyer for a quick drink and chat before dinner, where I had the pleasure is sitting next to Cathy Breden of CEIR, Cassandra Matej of the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau and Yulita Osuba of the Orange County Convention Center (who later thrashed me and everyone else at croquet). Very charming company.

Monday morning and breakfast before kicking off the conference began in the usual SISO tradition of having all of the attendees introduce themselves one by one. There we were introduced to the incomparable Andy Hickman (who didn't enjoy another glass of wine the whole conference after making a cheeky remark about wanting to meet the person running the Wine Expo). Prior to this, SISO Chairman Carl Pugh reminded the audience about his favorite things about SISO, which included the SISO members directory (the black book of the business), the SISO Forum at www.sisoforum.com, and the SISO intranet, which includes various white papers and templates which are ready to use (NDA, sample management agreements, etc.). The most striking thing he mentioned was that he had invested just over $6,000 in SISO and gotten back millions in return-impressive (and a sentiment echoed as I chatted with other members for this piece).

Introductions made, we kicked off with the Extending the Brand session, which was one of my favorite sessions as it turned out, primarily because of the firepower on stage. Led by Britton Jones of Business Journals, the panelists (George Jage of World Tea Expo, Frank Anton of Hanley-Wood, Skip Farber of WSA, and Kerry Smith of Red 7 Media), delved into what a brand means (engaging the customer, defining their aspirations and enabling them), how it can help you build revenues, save money and inhibit competition. It was explained that once you have a customer's loyalty to your brand you had better deliver or they will move on. Interestingly enough, other than Andy Hickman's talk this was the only talk I saw which delved into the customer side of the business, but what was discussed was excellent, nevertheless.

Next we were treated to The State of the industry from Doug Ducate. He talked about the 2007 CEIR Index, which included a review of the various event sectors. I'd never seen this presentation before and the details about various event sectors was fascinating. When a session is this data centric it's amazing how few questions there are after (there were none) - how can you argue with data?

I spent lunch with Peter Nathan of PWN Exhibicon International, a fixture in the world of SISO. The most striking thing he told me was that even after 52 years in the business he always learns something at a SISO event, which means he is still willing to learn and there is something at the CEO Summit to be learned - a tribute to the SISO Program Committee and one that I will echo, also. In addition, the presentation of the first Robert L. Krakoff SISO Leadership Award was made to John Mooney, the Chairman of M/C Communications and a worthy recipient.

After lunch, I was looking forward to a session I didn't know much about, one of the many private equity sessions, entitled Building a Profitable Media Business with Other People's Money. Carl Pugh moderated a session that explained how the financial guys viewed the media and specifically the expo and conference business. The panelists were Andrew Goodenough of Summit Business Media, Kerry Gumas of Questex Media, Tom Kemp of Oakstreet Media and Don Pazour of Access Intelligence. The whole private equity is fraught with all kinds of danger, especially if you or the equity partner doesn't know much about you or the business. SISO is fortunate to be able to attract wizened heads to these summits, in addition to having literally thousands of years of combined experience in its membership.

Next, the conference split into three track sessions. I attended the Launches session moderated by Carl Pugh and featuring the two Chrises, Elwell from Third Door Media and Gibbs from Exponation. Like myself, Elwell started his business bootstrapping it after a lot of experience working on the corporate side at Jupiter Media. It's fascinating how from an idea started from a bedroom can become a million dollar business with 11 staff (and no secretaries). Mr. Elwell told me that he was thrilled to share his experience on how he had made it happen with Search Marketing Expo.

Later, we were treated to a fantastic meal in the Marchands restaurant followed by conviviality (and Andy Hickman).

It's a good tip for us execs to attend a conference every once in a while (try as I might to attend one of my own I never seem to get the chance) as we are given a sense of the stamina one needs to be able to have the energy to attend all the sessions, network, make new business connections, get back to the hotel to take care of things that have 'popped up' at the office, 'enjoy' ourselves at night and still be at breakfast at 7:15 a.m.

On Tuesday morning, the top folks from the Orlando, Chicago and Las Vegas Convention Centers participated on a greatly anticipated and enjoyable panel with Tony Calanca (Advanstar), which handled the issues of exclusive contractors, moving dates, space availability and how it was handled from their side of the desk. A session on private equity followed, from the 'money guy' perspective and Don Pazour featuring Scott Mozarsky (United Business Media), Mike Hannon (CCMP), Jeff Stevenson (Veronis Suhler Stevenson) and Tyler Zachem (MidOcean Partners). It was another great session.

Finally, we got to see the incomparable Andy Hickman on stage, where the title was "Growing your business by growing your contacts." He wowed us with various tricks, such as a protuberant tie and burning wallet, but most of all with his skills of focus, namely being able to remember 30-40 odd names of people in the audience without eyeballing their badge. His point? Invest in people and it will more than pay you back, do things that your competitors can't or won't do.

After lunch, the various factions moved into activities: golf, croquet or ping pong. For all my skill in the long Florida grass playing croquet, I should have gone to the golf course to play ping pong. My group was Heather Farley (Access Intelligence), Bliss Beasley (AES), Yulita and Richard Stone (Expocad). As I mentioned, Richard and I were summarily thrashed by the ladies. I could say that we were gentleman and let the ladies win, but that would be lying. I was just rubbish.

At the final dinner on a balmy evening, we were entertained by a Jimmy Buffett style band and got to cheer the various winners of the golf, ping pong and croquet tournaments, including in no particular order or sense of completion: George Jage (World Tea Expo), Jochen Witt (JWC), Phil McKay (PPM Media) and of course, Julita Osuba. After the final late night in the cigar bar for Afterglow, it was time for goodbyes.

What did we learn?

1) SISO is indeed a family, and a very welcoming one at that;
2) The events business is strong, and within SISO, resources can help you get your events to the next level, whether with a new idea or line of funding;
3) Attending SISO events makes a lot of sense both for you and your company.

Final comment from other attendees:

"The CEO Summit represents a powerful group of peers where business can be conducted and experience shared." -Neal Vitale, CEO 1105 Media

"I was happy and willing to share what has worked for me at this Summit. I am definitely committed to SISO in the future."-Chris Elwell, President, Third Door Media LLC

"I come to learn from my peers."- Ray Pekowski, TEG Worldwide Media

"As usual, the content at this event was superb. The combination of sessions and networking with friends and colleagues makes it an invaluable meeting for me."- Steve Sind, President and CEO, Global Event Strategies

Thanks to Mary Beth and her staff for putting on another event I truly enjoyed. See you at the next one.

Warwick Davies is the Principal of The Event Doctor!, a consulting company that helps event organizers realize greater revenues and profits by fixing 'broken' events and launch new ones both in United States and internationally . His clients include organizers in the information technology, healthcare, biotechnology and executive events markets. Previously, Warwick was responsible for internationally recognizable event brands such as Macworld Conference and Expo, LinuxWorld Conference and Expo, and the Customer Relationship Management Conference and Exposition worldwide. For more information on The Event Doctor! and past SISO The Event Doctor! Columns, please visit www.theeventdoctor.net/resources.html. He can be reached at Warwick@theeventdoctor.net or at 781-354-0119.

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First Robert L. Krakoff SISO Industry Leadership Award Presented to John Mooney

John Mooney was the recipient of the first Robert L. Krakoff SISO Industry Leadership Award, presented at the SISO CEO Summit. Mooney, formerly Principle of M/C Communications and also volunteer SISO Chairman from 2000-02, announced 3Deep Media, based in suburban Boston, USA.

This award was developed to honor the memory and celebrate the life of industry icon Robert L. Krakoff, who died unexpectedly last spring. Bob mentored many of the current leaders of the trade show industry, and the SISO award was developed to honor an individual who's career most closely emulated Bob's - through industry leadership, successful and profitable business dealings, mentoring, and strong support for the trade show industry. The Krakoff family agreed with the Awards Committee that Mooney was the perfect first winner.

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Date Set for 2009 CEO Summit

The 2008 CEO Summit was a great success, and the date has been set for next year. Join SISO March 29-April 1, 2009 in San Diego, CA at the Grand Del Mar Hotel, as Lew Shomer begins his tenure as SISO's Executive Director.

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The 2008 SISO Executive Conference: Go for the Gold

This year's Executive Conference will take place August 4-6, 2008 in Atlanta, Georgia. From Beijing to Atlanta, the global impact of our events has profound implications; not only on individual businesses, but also on the industries served.

Join SISO in Atlanta August 4-6 to learn to:
· expand profit margins during economic uncertainty
· make your event indispensable to the industries you serve
· hone management and sales skills
· identify the best technology suppliers in the industry

The conference has been designed for executive level and small company CEOs to help build their events, their companies, and their careers. This year's conference will have three powerful tracks focused on CEO/executive level management, sales and technical solutions. These tracks contain diverse and innovative sessions designed to encourage lively interaction between speakers and attendees.

Click here for more information and to register.

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Industry News: Wal-Mart May Regret Doing Deal on a Handshake

Wal-Mart's former video-production company now is selling footage from its meetings because there was never anything in writing to prevent it. For the full story, visit the MeetingsNet Face2Face blog.