Posted by
Barry Siskind
Community Manager
Fifty percent of an exhibitor’s budget is spent on space rental and services. That doesn’t leave much to initiate other activities that will enhance their participation. In the past we have spoken about ideas that might help reduce the cost of on-site contractors. But, let’s look, for a moment, at the cost of space rental. Are there things you could be doing as the organizer to help lower that cost?
Before you shake your head and assume that this discussion will lower your profits, consider there may be another way to accomplish a savings for your exhibitors while preserving your bottom line.
For example: In an age when most of your registrations are completed on-line, do you need hundreds of square meters dedicated to registration? Surely this is an expense which ultimately is reflected in your cost to exhibitors.
What about lounges that are not fully utilized. Could you cut the size of a buyers, exhibitors or visitors lounge and pass on a bit of savings to your exhibitors?
Reducing your space rental fees requires a careful examination of your overall budget and trimming those things that are underutilized, redundant or can be combined with other amenities at your fair.
This statement is a bit too general. You really have to go into the different markets and see what is the price level. Be assured they can differ a lot!
Normally, the rental space in Europe is only 20% of the overall costs. So we are talking about a very different amount here.
If you compare the price levels at the various destinations and the value the exhibitor gets for this, there is not much room for reduction in some destinations.
Lounges offered by the organizer are often charged per visit and are not in general an element of the sqm price.
After and during the crisis, organizer cut costs – simply to survive – however this is nothing you can do in the long run.
It might be time for a different pricing model than the one based on sqm. I would encourage a discussion in this direction than the one about simply reducing the costs!