Climate Change
May 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Beth Mattson-Teig
RECon Trade Expo exhibitors adapt to a conservative business environment.
Exhibitors at the Trade Expo at ICSC's RECon will be marketing to a very tough audience. Competition among firms showcasing their latest products and services is likely to be intense as retailers and developers continue to tighten their belts. Furthermore, they're likely to have less time to hawk their wares as many conference attendees are planning on condensing their trips this year. Rather than spending three or four days at the show, many attendees plan to stay in Las Vegas for two days — or less.
“Given the current economic climate, we can't anticipate that attendance will match the record levels that we have seen in the last two years,” says Erin Hershkowitz, a spokesperson for ICSC.
The RECon convention attracted nearly 50,000 attendees in both 2007 and 2008. “We don't expect that to happen again this year, but we certainly are expecting a very productive and successful show,” she says.
RECon will be held May 17th through May 20th in Las Vegas. Pre-registration was down about 15 percent from last year, according to ICSC, with about 20,000 signed up for the conference as of mid-April. The association expects final numbers to be down about that much as well.
Even the convention itself is feeling the pinch from the struggling economy. The biggest change at the convention will be in the Leasing Mall, which will contract from three halls down to two. But the Trade Expo will also be affected.
ICSC is expecting about 275 registered exhibitors in the Trade Expo, a decrease from 350 that attended the show last year. The Trade Expo will cover 240,000 square feet, down about 30,000 square feet from 2008. Still, that's almost double the space the Trade Expo occupied in 2007.
Exhibitors in the Trade Expo will include firms that specialize in accounting or financial services software; advertising, marketing and public relations; architectural/engineering/construction; demographics, market analysis and prospecting software; graphic and interior design; decorations; flooring and masonry products; elevator and escalator sales; HVAC, lighting, and energy management; roofing contractors; security services; mall furnishings; and landscaping services.
Some of the changes to the Trade Expo this year include shorter hours and a shift in the layout. The Trade Expo will close at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, a few hours earlier than in the past. The earlier closing is a courtesy to allow exhibitors extra time to pack up and head home, Hershkowitz notes.
The ICSC also is relocating the Green Pavilion from the Grand Lobby to the Trade Expo portion of the convention. The Green Pavilion, which provides information on sustainable building practices and projects, will now be located next to the Green Zone.
The Green Zone, which made its debut in 2007, features roughly 65 exhibitors that showcase a variety of sustainable building products and services. Last year, the Green Zone occupied 16,000 square feet. ICSC also has become more stringent on how those companies qualify as green, so that attendees can get more value out of that section of the Trade Expo, Hershkowitz adds.
Even though the volume of attendees and exhibitors at RECon is expected to be down, exhibitors are preparing for a full-court press. One of the key ideas firms will be highlighting this year is how their products and services can add value, create efficiencies or cut costs.
“We're obviously experiencing a tumultuous time in the retail industry,” says David O'Niones, vice president and director of sales at Englewood, Colo.-based Playtime. The company is a global provider of interactive, themed play areas to shopping centers.
“With these economic realities, we've challenged our team to be more creative and strategic in assisting our clients to identify, develop and secure partnerships for their play areas,” he adds.
A common theme articulated throughout the retail industry is the critical importance for retail centers to promote a sense of community as well as enhance the shopping experience, O'Niones says. “We find ourselves in the position of providing an amenity that is both exceedingly popular and also proven to drive traffic — an important consideration at any time, but never more so than today.”
Recent Playtime projects range from play areas at Fiesta Mall in Mesa, Ariz., to Discovery Mall in Kuwait City, Kuwait.
Each year Playtime creates a new theme specifically for RECon. “The antibacterial nature of our coatings, enhancements with sound and a continued evolution in our approach to partnerships are important messages for this year's event,” O'Niones explains.
Innovations in lighting
Many exhibitors are concentrating on showing convention attendees how they are adapting to the new retail environment. WLS Lighting Systems is introducing numerous new energy-efficient products such as its SiteLynx, which is a wireless controller for lighting systems. “We are also educating developers and retailers on the benefits of good site lighting maintenance of their existing properties,” says Dean Pritchard, president of WLS Lighting Systems in Forth Worth, Texas.
For example, WLS is conducting exterior and interior lighting energy audits and researching rebate and tax credit information for its customers. WLS also is promoting a number of green initiatives including retrofitting existing projects with more energy-efficient lamps, introducing wireless controls, and educating developers and retailers on the numerous benefits of redesigning lighting systems.
There are a number of energy-efficient technologies being developed for exterior lighting that are becoming very popular. For instance, natural white lamps are a relatively new technology with numerous advantages over standard metal halide. WLS is recommending 775 natural white lamps in lieu of 1,000-watt probe start lamps for various reasons.
Natural white lamps produce an even whiter, brighter light than metal halide. As a result, the wattage — and energy costs — can be reduced while actually improving the lighting. In addition, natural white 775-watt lamps have a lamp life of 20,000-plus hours versus 12,000 for standard metal halide, and depreciate much slower than standard metal halide, Pritchard notes.
WLS realizes that budgets are tight. “However, when developers and retailers realize that natural white lamps save 25 percent in energy costs and provide much better lighting while burning almost twice as long, we think developers and retailers will consider switching to this superior technology,” Pritchard says.
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