Media data should always be transparent

Every organiser likes to publish the highest possible exhibitor and visitor figures. But visitor attendance figures are especially difficult to judge from outside. That could mean a rise in audited trade fair statistics.

Michael von Zitzewitz, chairman of the Society for Voluntary Control of Fair and Exhibition Statistics (FKM), Berlin, is convinced: "Trade fair statistics are becoming an increasingly important factor of competition in our sector, particularly at an international level." Indeed, media data should always be transparent.
In Germany the number of audited events was apparently in decline in 2005. The chairman of the FKM explained this with the cyclic downturn of the past few years. Nevertheless, the 67 members offered exhibitors more visitor breakdowns than ever before - relative to the total number of audited events. For 2006, however, FKM expects about 270 audited events again, which is roughly 7 % more than last year. A number of members decided to enrol newly set up trade fairs for auditing early on. "Which goes to show that the FKM is working and audits are not seen as an onerous duty to be shirked if possible."
FKM-audited trade fairs are a sizeable market: Almost 190,000 exhibitors and 14 million visitors were recorded at 252 events in Germany last year. And another 25 trade fairs were audited abroad. The FKM has three non-German guest members: Fiere Verona, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and the MVK trade fair organiser from Moscow. The biggest growth region for trade fair auditing is Central and Eastern Europe. The region's auditing body, Centrex, now operates in six countries. In Russia, a new auditing body of the Russian trade fair association commenced work in early 2005, and has reportedly audited over 40 fairs already.
Business has an urgent need for reliable and comparable data for its trade fair planning. Few exhibitors target all visitors to a trade fair and some specialist manufactures are only interested in a small percentage of visitors. "But this group of visitors must attend the fair if the appearance is to be successful. Hard facts are needed, about visitors sectors, region of origin and competence", is von Zitzewitz' conviction.
Exhibitors are getting more and more critical. They are comparing what was promised in the brochure before the trade fair with the visitor breakdown after the event. Any organiser with a large discrepancy between the two has a problem, von Zitzewitz explains.
And worldwide there are comparability issues, above all with figures from the USA and United Kingdom. They often use an indicator that is almost unknown in Germany, "attendance", i.e. the total attendance of all people involved in the trade fair, such as visitors, exhibitors personnel and convention delegates. This considerably impedes comparability with figures collected in other countries, says Zitzewitz, because the exhibitors personnel may well number several thousand people for a large trade fair. In some statistics, such figures are wrongly listed under visitors. "By accident or design, exhibitors are being misled", complains the FKM chairman. Worldwide organisers have been thinking on national lines so far and not paid much attention to different standards of trade fair data. The exhibiting companies have long gone global but are often in the dark about how to judge and compare trade fair data from different parts of the world. "That does not do much for the acceptance of trade fairs as a medium. It is important that organisers converge in the interests of our customers worldwide", said Zitzewitz.
"That is why it is so important for us that such terms are given standardised definitions within the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry UFI." The FKM is also represented at the negotiations with ISO, the International Standardisation Organisation, which is considering worldwide standardisation of trade fair terms. Zitzewitz: "In our view, it would be enough if the UFI dealt with this issue, but because the ISO process can no longer be stopped, we are representing our interests there."

m+a report Nr.4 / 2006 vom 15.06.2006
m+a report vom 15. Juni 2006