The number of trade and consumer exhibitions in the US and Canada dropped in 2001 and barely rose in 2002, but since then there has been a steady climb.
The number of shows of at least 5,000 square feet is expected rise from 4,343 in 2002 to an estimated 5,036 this year, according to Tradeshow Week magazine.
“Nationally, trade shows took a hit in the early part of the decade. The burst of the dot-com bubble and the 9/11 attacks closed the wallets of countless businesses, and shows were among the things on which they cut back,” according to the Philadelphia Business Journal.
Among areas that have benefited from the comeback: Philadelphia. A major reason: the expansion of the local convention center.
But more reasonable costs have also helped, according to Pennsylvania Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Vice President Jack Ferguson.
For local groups, he added that uncertainty surrounding the expansion of New York’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center has many show owners along the Northeast corridor eying Philadelphia as an alternative.
“Those big companies that own trade shows are all looking at Philadelphia and saying, ‘What’s happening in [20]10, 11 and 12, because we don’t know what’s happening in the Javits Center,'” Mr Ferguson said.
Report by David Wilkening
