End of INTX, Consolidation of CTIA Shows Not Seen as Trade Show Harbingers

Despite the end of the cable industry's premier trade show, NCTA's INTX, and CTIA folding its conference into GSMA Mobile World Congress (see 1606220030), telco and trade show industry experts and insiders see those as outliers in an otherwise healthy trade show ecosystem. American Cable Association President Matt Polka -- himself a longtime INTX attendee -- said it's too early to say whether new shows will spring up to replace INTX, or whether existing shows -- such as those ACA helps organize and sponsor -- will expand. ACA planning for its 2017 events is going ahead "as is," Polka told us.

The trade show world overall has been growing for 24 consecutive quarters when measured by attendance, exhibitor numbers, revenue and square footage, and is projected to continue growing through at least 2018, said Brian Casey, CEO of the Center for Exhibition Industry Research. "The exhibition model still resonates quite well," Casey told us. In its 2016 index report released last month, CEIR said total business-to-business exhibition attendance hit 33.4 million in 2015, exceeding the 2007 peak of 32.4 million, though revenue, exhibitor numbers and square footage all remain below their pre-Great Recession peaks.

NAB's main trade show has traditionally been much larger than INTX and remains strong, with more than 100,000 registrations and 1,700 exhibitors at both the 2015 and 2016 events, NAB said. The smaller Radio Show, conducted with the Radio Advertising Bureau, was attended by just over 2,000 people each of the past three years, and averaged about 60 exhibitors over the same period, NAB said. ACA said attendance at its annual Summit has been 350 and growing, and the National Cable Television Cooperative's Winter Educational Conference attracts about the same. And 2016's Independent Show attracted a record attendance of more than 1,200, ACA said. NCTA didn't comment on INTX attendance figures. Satellite Week manager Jeffrey Hill told us Satellite 2016 had 13,306 registrants. That was a 6 percent increase from 2015, he said. The event has seen a steady 5-6 percent year-over-year increase the past five years, he said.

Cable industry insiders said industry consolidation was a likely nail in INTX's coffin. "The combination of companies was hurting attendance overall," said Mediacom Senior Vice President-Government and Public Relations Tom Larsen. Last month in announcing the end of INTX, NCTA called the traditional trade show an "anachronism" (see 1609280068). NCTA declined to comment now.

More online access to information, such as webinars, also has eroded some of the role of trade shows, said Satellite Industry Association President Tom Stroup. Associations often also end up dedicating significant resources to programming, and if that programming -- such as shows -- is barely a break-even proposition, the association can start to explore other means of focusing on its core mission, such as promotion of the industry, he said. Stroup said there has been growth of smaller, more-targeted industry events, like the Hosted Payload and Smallsat Summit set for Oct. 20.

CTIA has faced declining enrollment with few major announcements made at its annual show, especially relative to CES and the Mobile World Congress, said a GSMA official. Turning the show around and making it more successful likely will take several years, the official said. Instead, it will co-host next year's meeting with the London-based GSMA, which has had broad success with the Mobile World Congress each February in Barcelona. The new show, to be in San Francisco next fall, is being styled "GSMA Mobile World Congress Americas, in partnership with CTIA." CTIA declined to comment. The CTIA move was only the latest show consolidation for the group, with its two shows -- an annual show in the spring and the smaller MobileCON in the fall -- consolidated into a single September show starting in 2014.

A large trade event remains important because it lets the attendees see what's new in person and foster relationships, emailed NAB Executive Vice President-Conventions Chris Brown. “No one has yet defined a better format for truly bringing together an industry and creating a combination of marketplace, learning forum and unparalleled networking.”

The NAB Show remains important for networking and interacting with clients and officials, said Wiley Rein co-founder and former FCC Chairman Dick Wiley. Broadcasters are able to interact and make deals and have conversations that might not otherwise occur, Wiley said. The event is also relevant to Wall Street, Wiley told us. He's asked annually to hold Q&A sessions for investors and large banks on the topics discussed at the show, Wiley said.

The trade show is one of the most important events on the ATSC's calendar, said ATSC President Mark Richer. The rollout of next generation-broadcast standard ATSC 3.0 was a major attraction at the 2016 gathering, with elaborate demos and a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Though ATSC has its own annual conference and produced extensive multimedia marketing materials on the new standard, making a splash at the NAB Show was vitally important, Richer told us. It's a place where the organization's many members can interact and where new members can be recruited, he said.

One lawyer with cable clients who has frequently attended numerous regional and national industry and technology shows, at times as a speaker, said INTX also was a good networking opportunity for younger lawyers: “Anybody who has been in the industry for a long time is going to miss it. I will miss it.” But industry consolidation led to few major transactions taking place at the show itself, the lawyer said.

A big challenge for the cable industry with the sunsetting of INTX is what to do with programming that was specific to it, such as the Vanguard Awards, Larsen said. "There are a lot of organizations that benefited from a mass congregation of cable folks," he said. "They are going to have to get creative. People probably are thinking about different ways to get key decision-makers together.”

Existing shows -- such as CES and CableLabs' summer and winter conferences -- could fill some of the voids left by INTX, Larsen said. "There is no shortage of opportunities to get out and see the technology," he said, saying the one missing piece -- meeting with programmers -- might now fall more heavily on the Independent Show.

Brown said exhibitors and attendees that would otherwise have gone to INTX might be able to find a new home at the NAB Show, Brown said. “Our roots and center point are still broadcasting but we long ago opened the doors for related and next-generation forms of media,” he said. “This certainly includes the cable industry,” said Brown. “Our doors are open. And our event, our format, is working.”