Midwest Passage
Exposing the illusive trade route to the Orient that runs through Chicago.
By Rowland Stiteler
HISTORY BUFFS WILL RECALL THAT THE ORIGINAL REASON FOR COLUMBUS’ VOYAGE was to find a trade route from Spain to China. Other explorers pursued a northwest passage through the Great Lakes and a southern route around Cape Horn. Now, it seems several savvy trade groups have finally found the passage, running right through Chicago, because the Big Shoulders city has established a significant trade relationship with China for March’s International Home Housewares Show, the world’s largest event of its kind.
The International Housewares Association (IHA), which has four international offices but none in China, sees the country—and Asia in general—as being a key region for the organization’s continued growth, as well as ongoing sales growth for its members, who are the manufacturers of house wares ranging from frying pans to microwaves to vacuum cleaners.
“Basically if you can cook with it or clean with it and it’s within the walls of the home, it’s in the realm of products our suppliers manufacture and market,” said Derek Miller, IHA vice president of international business services. “The mission of our annual show is to get buyers and sellers together, and it’s become a priority for our association to increase our presence in China.”
The Housewares Show—which attracts more than 60,000 attendees, including 22,000 buyers from worldwide retailers such as Macy’s, Williams-Sonoma and Wal-Mart—is the premier annual selling opportunity for its manufacturer members, offering them the chance to do everything from roll out new product lines for the coming year to forge new relationships with potential buyers for their house wares.
So it’s only fitting that the show itself offers a key opportunity for the IHA to reach one of its goals of establishing new markets in China and attracting suppliers and retail buyers from the world’s most populous country.
But because IHA does not have an office in China, it had not been able to put together a well-vetted list of potential new Chinese supplier members and qualified buyers to attend the convention, Miller says.
“We needed local expertise, someone within China who is knowledgeable about the industry there,” he said.
Enter the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau (CCTB). In part because the annual Housewares Show is one of the biggest ongoing trade shows in the city, the CCTB was able deliver what Miller calls “a wonderful service” to the IHA.
The CCTB, through its partnership with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO)—which has nine offices around the world, including one in China—was able to find and hire a house wares industry consulting group within China to put together a well-researched list of contacts in China for the IHA, including about 100 suppliers and about 30 buyers who would be prime potential exhibitors and attendees for the Housewares Show and affiliates with IHA for years to come.
The icing on the cake, Miller says, is that the CCTB not only had the expertise and local contacts in China to complete the research, but that the CCTB paid for the study.
The CCTB was able to offer this service to IHA because of a new strategic partnership it forged recently with DCEO, with the overall goal of building economic growth in Illinois, including within the convention and trade show industry.
And any action that can help IHA members increase trade with their counterparts in China can benefit the house wares industry in Chicago and around Illinois, since the Midwest region is home to many major house wares manufacturers and retailers, according to Megan Gaus, CCTB client marketing manager.
Reaching out internationally also makes sense for CCTB marketing efforts, Gaus says.
“Associations these days are quite familiar with their domestic markets and membership, so when they are looking for ways to increase their memberships and markets vertically, looking internationally has certainly become a key focus for them” Gaus said.
Consequently, Gaus says, the CCTB in recent years has adopted a strategy of seeking to help associations and trade show groups that meet in Chicago develop their international markets and attendance for Chicago events—as a value added for booking Chicago.
Gaus says that in addition to helping IHA with China research for its 2009 show it is having Mideast research done by a Lebanon-based firm with house wares industry expertise to help support the 2010 Housewares Show.
While Miller felt there was a clear payoff in Chinese participation in the 2009 show because of the CCTB research, he anticipates that the biggest impact will be in 2010, because the IHA will be using the information it gained from the research to conduct its own Chinese marketing campaign during the coming year.
“One of the biggest values of the research and contacts we have gained goes to building long-term relationships,” he said.
Perry Reynolds, IHA vice president of marketing and trade development, says the location and bricks-and-mortar reality of Chicago also play an important role in the success of the Housewares Show year after year.
“For one thing, because of the physical size of our show, and the square footage of exhibit space we require, there are actually only three cities in the U.S. that could handle us,” he said.
Reynolds says that because of the recession that was particularly pressing in March (when the show is held each year), attendance was slightly off, but within its usual range.
He says there was certainly a vibrancy and energy on the trade show floor that the IHA members found encouraging. That was in part because of the unusual position the house wares industry finds itself in.
“When there is a recession, people stay home more, they cook at home more and, consequently, there is more demand for our products,” Reynolds said.
But Reynolds says IHA members were also encouraged by the growing international nature of the Housewares Show, due in part to outreach efforts like those of the CCTB. One+
ROWLAND STITELER has written extensively about the global meeting and events industry from his home in Florida.
What’s New in Chicago
• The Ledge, a new, completely glass observation platform at the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) opened to the public in July. The Ledge, which is 1,353 feet above street level, is essentially a glass balcony—with a glass floor.
• theWit - A Doubletree Hotel, opened on State Street in downtown Chicago in May offering 298 guest rooms and 7,000 square feet of event space.
• The 619-room JW Marriott Hotel Chicago is under construction with a scheduled opening date of June 2010. It will offer 43 meeting rooms.
Transportation Tip
• Environmentally oriented convention attendees might consider GO Airport Express, which serves both Midway and O’Hare airports and is using fuel-efficient vehicles. GO Airport Express says its six-passenger vans use 30 percent as much fuel as six rental cars and generate 54 percent fewer carbon emissions.
Fun Facts
• Historic Route 66 begins in Chicago at Grant Park on Adams Street in front of the Art Institute of Chicago.
• The first Ferris wheel made its debut in Chicago at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition (also called the Chicago World’s Fair). It was 264 feet high and had 36 cars, each of which could accommodate 60 people.
• The world’s first skyscraper, for the Home Insurance Co., was built in 1885 in Chicago.