Ad:Tech organizers are taking a trouper's approach--with a can-do, show-must-go-on attitude. And though attendance is down from last year, a boom time for business, organizers are doing everything they can to pump optimism--and bodies--into this show.
There were 3,000 attendees pre-registered, said Dawn Jeffrey, Ad:Tech show director. Two-thirds of them had turned up during Tuesday and Wednesday of the three-day show.
"If we have a decent day today, we should end up with 3,000," she said on Thursday morning. The total was 4,000 attendees in 2000.
Saying she's thrilled attendance is only down by one-fourth, Jeffrey added, "The large technology shows are down by 75%." Others, she added, have been cancelled.
The 3,000-attendee figure includes registrants, speakers and press.
One way Ad:Tech has boosted registration, though, is to offer freebies for qualified participants to tour the exhibit hall and sit in on keynote speeches. Those qualified had to be at the advertising executive level. The average price for the full three-day event is $1,195.
Ad:Tech also teamed with America Online (an exhibitor) to offer 100 tickets to Broadway shows gratis to top-level media buyers. They had to attend Ad:Tech and visit the AOL booth to pick up their tickets to "Aida" or "42nd Street."
"After Sept. 11, we were getting e-mails asking if the Javits Center was being used as a morgue (which had been falsely reported)," Jeffrey said.
The ticket giveaway was a gesture of assistance to New York by encouraging people to go out, and a way to promote Ad:Tech. "The show must go on--on Broadway and at Ad:Tech," she said.
There are 75 exhibitors, down from 150 last year. Many of those 150 have subsequently gone out of business, Jeffrey said. "We have a lot of new companies signed up and we will build from there."
When Ad:Tech staff surveyed exhibitors Tuesday evening to gauge who might sign up next year, "not one exhibitor was unhappy with the deal," Jeffrey said. Based on those interviews, she expects re-ups to be strong.
