Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Post-"Surfaces" Commentary

The annual floor covering trade extravaganza, Surfaces, convened once again in Las Vegas last week. We at Plantation opted out of the opportunity to spend vast amounts of money reserving exhibit space, then building, shipping, assembling, staffing, tearing down, and shipping again the typical Surfaces exhibit booth, all for the purpose of visiting with uncertain foot traffic of existing and potential new customers for custom-made wood flooring. The return on investment in such an undertaking has proven over several shows to be miserable.

Instead, we visited all our friends who did have exhibit booths! And, plenty of others with whom we made appointments to meet for meals, get-togethers, visits to hospitality suites, and similar experiences. We even tried to make it to a seminar or two (but failed). To me, it felt like we were in much better control of our agenda at the show, because we were highly proactive with our activities, rather than passively waiting in our booth for our appointments to show up (or not), and being ready for random visitors to slow down to see our goods.

We probably missed seeing some people that we would like to have seen. But we were busy the entire show, and accomplished a great deal. Could this be the true answer to how to maximize the trade show experience as a manufacturer?

People have asked me in the aftermath, "How was the show?" My impression of the show is that it was smaller (less square footage of exhibits) than ever before, in spite of being combined with an entire separate industry of stone flooring. But, almost everyone I asked for an appointment was in fact planning to be at the show, so, although hard to really know, the attendance was probably pretty good.

I don't know if my reaction and thinking is typical of anyone else like us, but I observed the noticeable absence on the show floor of some major players. Probably most striking was the absence of the mega-booth annually constructed by Shaw's Anderson Floors. I shudder to imagine how much money those guys have spent on those bygone exhibits that look like an indoor city. I also wonder what thinking led them to change their strategy this year? Mannington had an entire presence outside the show itself, off the show lobby. It had high walls with an entrance, and to me, seemed like a daunting gauntlet to run through unless you had specific business with Mannington.

On the other hand, the Chinese presence was once again large, with larger booths, and more personnel. I was somewhat amazed by this fact, since the threat of anti-dumping action against their displayed products hung heavily in the air. It is almost like they didn't get the memo that the U.S. government was far advanced in putting them out of business!

To be fair, several people at the show do not believe that anything will actually happen. They believe that the threatened duties is a large head-fake, and that punitive duties will never be implemented. Some expressed the opinion that the U.S. is so heavily dependent on Chinese financing of U.S. government debt that it would never dare to follow through. People with these opinions seemingly were heavily invested in the China-made business model, as importers or distributors of cheap Chinese flooring. They were, as we used to say in the trading business, "talking their book." Oddly, there were even a few who seemed to be unaware that anything at all was happening!

I am glad not to be an investor today in a China-focused wood flooring enterprise, because those guys are betting the ranch against U.S. action, and the wind seems to be blowing the wrong way for them at the moment.

The new site of the Mandalay Bay Convention Center seemed fine for the purpose, although the location is at the far south end of the strip, and thus not so well located for other visitor activities. I spoke with several folks who claimed they hadn't even left the hotel property at all! That's probably music to the ears of the Mandalay Bay! The restaurants on site were fine, if a little crowded. Over the space of a few days, the variety of on-site eating opportunities became a bit thin, but not a big deal.

All-in-all, we had a good, and informative experience, but only because we did it differently than in past years. We met with, and strategized with, a lot of people important to our business. And, let's be honest, business is so much better this year than the previous few years, it's not so surprising that we feel better about it all.

Now, what to do about all the other upcoming 2011 shows?