CHICAGO — Trade Show Executive’s (TSE) Q3 Dashboard indicates that metric growth is settling back towards pre-pandemic norms after rapid expansion in the wake of COVID-19. Breaking down net square footage (nsf), exhibitors present and people in attendance, the Dashboard report provides a quarterly dive into the numbers behind each show.
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A list of 46 shows populates the Q3 Dashboard. Of these, 30 events enlarged net square footage (nsf) from their previous edition while 12 recorded double-digit growth in this metric. The quantity of exhibitors expanded at 30 events as well, and 12 events had double-digit growth in this category. Total attendance climbed at 30 shows, with 15 boasting double-digit increases. Sixteen gatherings saw a jump in professional attendance and seven notched double-digit improvements.
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Growth has continued to level out, a trend that follows prior fiscal quarters in 2024 with the notable exception of overall attendance. In Q3, nsf growth registered at 1.3%, number of exhibitors rose 1.5% and total attendance climbed by 4.1%, while professional attendance stayed flat with no change. While these numbers do reflect positive rates of improvement, they also represent a decline from Q2, where nsf grew by 3.0%, exhibitors increased by 4.5% and professional attendance lifted by 0.1%. The exception to that trendline is total attendance which only went up by 2.2% in Q2.
When compiling the Dashboard, TSE adjusts for outliers and shows without a consecutive two-year comparison. Once this calculation has been made, Q3 events totaled 4,542,368 nsf, 17,712 exhibitors, 326,644 total attendees and 117,333 professional attendees.
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MINExpo INTERNATIONAL was the growth leader among Q3 shows, which is not surprising considering that the event is on a quadrennial schedule and last took place in 2021, after being postponed from 2020 due to COVID-19. As such, the post-pandemic growth that most shows have experienced incrementally over the past three years has been captured in 2024’s edition of MINExpo, giving the gathering the most nsf at 851,530 and the highest attendance at 44,953. With nsf increasing by 31.0%, exhibiting companies rising 48.4% and total attendance growing by 99.9%, the show had the highest marks in all three categories.
Check out the full Dashboard in the December issue of TSE Magazine. Subscribe to receive a copy today at https://tsx.magserv.com/cgi-bin/subscribe.
To submit show data to be included in TSE’s quarterly analysis, use this link: https://tradeshowexecutive.com/dashboardentryform.
