SAN DIEGO — The Pacific Coast Builders Conference (PCBC), which was held on July 28-29 at the Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center, saw exponential growth this year with a revamp that led to a 27% increase in registrations.
At first blush, you may assume that the California Building Industry Association (CBIA), the organization that runs the event, achieved this success by offering more to attendees — and you would be half right. While the show did provide more education options than in previous years, PCBC also launched a new format that cut the show down to two days from three.
According to Shantelle Johnson, CBIA’s Vice President of Events, shrinking the show was a response to the needs of its stakeholders, whose ability to travel to events changed with the economy.
“We understand that right now the industry is facing a really difficult time and everybody is being asked to do more with less. To have a trade show that goes on for three days is a big ask of people and their budgets right now,” Johnson explained. “We found that what resonated with our attendees more than anything else was really just being conscientious of their budget.”
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CBIA also needed to be conscientious about how attendees experienced PCBC. Since the show has two invitation-only components — Leader-to-Leader and the National Buyers Circle — for industry decision-makers, the entire event could last up to four days in total. Attendance patterns revealed that those who went to these programs, which were scheduled before the regular PCBC show, would immediately leave afterward and miss the main attraction.
To address this, CBIA scheduled the main show first, followed by the invite-only programs, so there’d be an overlap. This meant PCBC ran from Tuesday to half of Wednesday, and then Leader-to-Leader and the National Buyers Circle ran on Wednesday through Thursday — making it easier for busy leaders to attend the entire event.
Strategies for Doing More with Less
Since professionals across several industries are tightening their belts, it has become more challenging for shows to demonstrate their value. Although one way to communicate a high return on investment is to shrink the length of a show, organizers must walk the tightrope of reducing length while finding ways to increase value on the floor.
To do this, Johnson suggests first looking at the needs of attendees and exhibitors.
“Every industry is different right now and every industry is reacting to a very volatile economy,” Johnson said. “What are your attendees and exhibitors dictating? If there are budget constraints, then take that into consideration. Look at your venue. Look at the programming and see if there is a way to get the same content. Right now in this world, there is so much content available that you almost want to say, ‘What can you give them in a smaller amount of time that provides an equal amount of value?’”
While it may sound counterintuitive, PCBC was actually able to successfully reimagine its approach to content by both cutting the amount of time for each session down to 20 minutes from about 40, while adding brand new ones. CBIA also created new education tracks covering sales and marketing, as well as technology.
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“We not only diversified our content and our speakers, but also really included different aspects of education within the industry,” Johnson explained. “We had an overwhelming success with that. Our initial surveys have given us a 4.65 out of five stars on our education sessions, which tells me the changes resonated. We moved in the right direction, giving attendees more breadth of content.”
Another strategy that Johnson believes shows should try when cutting length is to partner with different events in the same industry for cross-promotion.
“We worked with five different associations to really cross-promote and get the word out to all of our audiences,” Johnson said. “We took the approach of ‘You’re not our competitor. We’re all in this industry together. How do we make all ships rise?’”
Creating Unique Pricing
To help entice budget-conscious attendees, Johnson also suggests that events provide more options as they value pack their shows in a reduced schedule.
“We changed the price points and made it more accommodating,” Johnson said. “You could come in for one day and not both days, or you could get an exhibit hall pass and not just a conference pass.”
Thanks to these new options, attendees were able to have the exact experience they wanted at PCBC, personalizing it in ways that met their individual needs.
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