Incentive Show Reprised in Event and Virtual Settings

The Incentive Show is re-emerging in new formats. VNU is converting the event, which closed its doors after 71 years last month, into a virtual trade show. And Selling Communications, Inc. and Motivation Media are organizing their own trade show for the New York market.

Selling Communications, the marketing arm of the Motivation Show, and Motivation Media plan to produce the New York Incentive, Rewards and Recognition Expo, a paid attendance show set for May 30-31 at the Sheraton Towers Hotel in Manhattan. The show is expected to bring in 125 exhibitors and focus more on brand name products.

An education component, which is now being finalized, will include sessions on incentive, recognition, rewards and strategic brand partnership. Selling Communications will partner with various associations for the sessions. The show will also include floor demonstrations of top product categories and Town Hall-style meetings for buyers and brands.

“We believe New York, as the center of the business world in the U.S., is a critical area to keep our industry visible and present,” said Jim Kilmetis, executive VP of sales and marketing for Selling Communications and co-producer of the new show. “We think the critical element of the show is to bring back excitement to the marketplace.”

Selling Communications hopes to invigorate attendees and exhibitors by hosting its show in a more intimate, upscale hotel setting versus the huge space at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York where the show has been held in recent years.

“It’s not going to be as big as the Javits,” Kilmetis said. “We want a very exclusive club here.”

Brands including Bose Corp., Rymax, Inc., Movado, Sony and Marriott plan to exhibit at the show, Kilmetis said.

With its focus on brand name products, the new show will move away from promotional product suppliers (think caps, magnets and pens) as exhibitors.

“Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” Kilmetis said. “That is not the direction we want to take this show. This show is about brand names in merchandise, in gift cards and in travel.”

“These shows have always been about ‘come see products, gift cards and travel,'” he added. “And certainly, you will be able to see all these at our show. But no one has ever [said] to the marketing community ‘come talk to these great brands about strategic partners that might be developed.'”

Last month, VNU said it was canceling the Incentive Show, which had been scheduled for May 30-31 at the Sheraton Towers Hotel in Manhattan (PROMO P&I, Oct. 18, 2006). However, VNU’s Business Media’s Performance Group, which includes Incentives and Potentials magazines, is converting the event to a virtual trade show and Webinar series. The show will also include a luxury brand show expected to launch in 2007 in a boutique hotel. The group is also exploring regional shows and a breakfast series.

VNU cancelled the show because it wanted focus on its magazines, Jackie Augustine, Performance Group group publisher, said.

“Selling Communications is launching [the show] under a different brand,” Augustine said. “I wish them good luck with it. I think we need a show.”

The number of exhibitors at the former Incentive Show had dropped in recent years to less than half to what it had been in the 1980s. Attendance also had steadily declined over the last decade, largely due to the quality of attendees, drawing 4,000 to 5,000 people last year.

For its part, the IMA plans to “aggressively” promote the show among its membership. New York is a vital market for the incentive industry, and having a new show for the area is important, Karen Renk, executive director of the Incentive Marketing Association, said.

“We applaud Selling Communications for thinking of the industry and filling that void,” Renk said.

With every trade show comes a bit of risk. For the New York Incentive, Rewards and Recognition Expo in particular, starting a new show from scratch isn’t an easy task. But Renk said the IMA is confident the show will find its niche in the marketplace.

“We are very hopeful the show is going to be successful,” Renk said. “If anyone can pull this off, certainly it’s Selling Communications.”