IFES - Sharing Knowlegde

From November 28 till November 30, the first Joint IFES/EDPA Convention was held in Miami with a resounding success: nearly 300 exhibition industry leaders attended the convention, in what turned out to be a huge celebration of face to face communication.

In their opening speeches, both Leslie P.C. Zech, IFES President, and Dalton Jenkins, EDPA President pointed out to the importance of this meeting, as it confirmed the strong will of this industry to go on doing its business as usual despite adversities and consolidated the increased integration of the exhibition industry in a global market.

Highlights of the Convention were the impressive speech by Gene Kranz, NASA's chief flight director, showing that commitment and the will to succeed are key factors for success; his story of team building and leadership apply seamlessly to the exhibition industry, where the key word also is 'Failure is not an option'!

Another highlight was Douglas Ducate's presentation on the future of the exhibition industry, paying special attention on the operational implications of increased security concerns, such as quarantine of shipments, tighter access controls etc.

On Thursday November 29, the International Exhibit Builder Industry Summit discussed items such as hampering elements to the further development of our industry, the future of exhibitions and suppliers in peripheral markets, the competitiveness of exhibitions in relation to other media and how to convince customers to keep going to exhibitions. Two baselines emerged from the discussion:

• The Power of Being There : the exhibition suppliers need to convince their customers by all means that face to face marketing brings in better value

• Perception is the Enemy : our industry needs to present a better case to its environment, underpinned with facts and figures.

The panellists to the Summit continued to discuss the peculiarities of their specific home markets in very animated Break Out sessions.

During the President's Ball on Friday, Dalton Jenkins, in his final speech as EDPA President, expressed his conviction in the future of this industry, 'not because it would be easy, but because it is hard! This industry is made of winners. He then handed over the presidency to Mark Brauer.