Analysis of business conducted by buyers at the second edition of IMEX America at the Sands Expo in Las Vegas last October reveals that buyers placed—or expect to place—US$3.3 billion of business as a result of attending the award-winning trade show. The figure is a 17.5 percent increase on the $2.8 billion achieved at and during the months after the debut show in October 2011.
More than 1,000 hosted buyers and buyer attendees gave their feedback in the show’s exit survey which, according to IMEX Group Chairman, Ray Bloom, is “an exceptional response sample.” The post show surveys are used extensively by the IMEX Group to generate ideas and suggestions for refining IMEX America year-over-year and the high response rate reflects the enthusiasm for the show from the buyers.
The post-show survey asked buyers a series of questions about their aims, objectives and behavior at IMEX America, including “what is the estimated value of orders you placed at the show and the estimated value of orders you expect to place as a result of the show?”—a question which produced the $3.3 billion value.
“This is a firm endorsement of the high quality of buyers we attracted this year and proof, if any were needed, that the show delivers real business value and produces positive results for many months afterwards,” Bloom said.
The post-show survey also revealed several other statistics about buyer behavior at the trade show. The introduction of a new, personalized hosted buyer email inbox on the IMEX website was widely praised for helping buyers to manage their communications with exhibitors. The new approach generated a single email every day to each buyer that alerted them to their new appointment requests. Of the 38,000 individual appointments made by buyers, 20 percent were made as a result of the improved email inbox. This new practice will now be rolled out to all buyers attending IMEX in Frankfurt in May.
“I’m very impressed with IMEX’s focus on digital and what they’re doing to allow us as hosted buyers…to communicate on the mobile devices, on the Web before the show, during the show and, of course, way after the show," said hosted buyer Bryan Bruce of HPN Global. "Really, for me, the difference-maker has been the digital component of this show. It’s been very impressive.”
It’s clear from this data that IMEX America is delivering on its promise of providing an active, high-quality global marketplace in which the meetings, events and incentive travel industry in North America can meet and do business, Bloom says.
"In the context of on-going economic challenges in many parts of the world, these figures are welcome and positive news all round," Bloom said. "The data also shows that the efforts we’ve made to perfect business interactions, such as the single email inbox and various other online appointment tools, are widely appreciated. They clearly provide added-value and true business efficiency at a time when buyers and suppliers want the process of qualifying each other and then doing business together to be as fast and seamless as possible.”