Attendee: Executive Summary

Reasons For Attending
Discovering new products was the top reason indicated for attending the show, with 97% of respondents indicating this was very important or important. Of these, 88% indicated the show delivered well (57%) or extremely well (31%) in this area.

Taking advantage of Show Specials was indicated as important by 66% of respondents. Of these, however, only 15% indicated that the show delivered extremely well in this area and 58% indicated fairly well. Nearly one in four indicated the show did not deliver well in this area and there were many comments regarding Show Specials. This is discussed further under Recommendations.

Attendance at Special Events
In general there appears to have been very modest attendance by buyers at the various special events and venues.

Buyer Raffles
Fewer than 30% of responding attendees indicated they were aware of the Buyer Raffle for buyers who wrote orders at the show. We don’t currently know enough about this program to make a recommendation but if there is much expense involved it is a promotion that might be revisited.

Writing Orders
Slightly more than half (55%) of responding attendees indicated they wrote orders at the show. Of these, some 70% were under $50,000. Nearly 25% of orders were over $50,000.

Future Show Dates
The majority of attendee respondents indicate a preference for the current show time frame. While 43% indicated preference for the “Current Schedule,” an additional 17 indicated July/August as preferred. No other time frame was preferred by more than 15% and Jan/Feb was preferred by only 7%. This response might provide an opportunity to quiet the controversy about Show dates.

Venue
Slightly more than 70% of responding attendees feel that all future ICAST shows should be scheduled for Las Vegas. 17% disagree and 13% were undecided. On the option of holding most shows in Las Vegas but moving to an alternate venue every few years, 40% agreed while 45% disagreed and 15% were undecided. This is discussed further under Recommendations.

Plans For 2004
Eighty per cent of respondents indicate they plan to attend ICAST 2004, 14% aren’t sure and only 2% say no. This should be highly encouraging.

Summary
The survey responses from exhibitors, buyers and media who attended ICAST 2003 were very positive. It provided valuable input and data on which to make future show decisions and to base future marketing and communications strategies.

The poor response from prospective attendees (those who did not experience ICAST 2003) was disappointing. In our view, this underscores both the challenge and the importance of communicating the benefits of ICAST. Such communication might begin with aggressive distribution and promotion of the results of these surveys—and the actions that will be taken as a result.