Exhibition Day 2020

If some of the participants are like me, the full contribution of their efforts won’t be tallied for days or weeks to come.  However, as of about 2:30pm on June 3^rd, which was the 7^th annual Exhibitions Day, there were over 1.3 Million impressions digitally creating awareness of legislation aimed at helping the trade show industry re-open for activity.

According to the Center for Exhibition Industry Research, in 2019 Business to Business Events contributed over $101 Billion to the U.S. GDP.  Over one and a half million companies rely on exhibiting for effective and efficient marketing.  Over 81 million people attended trade shows in the US last year.  And then Covid-19 hit us all and the industry literally came to a screeching halt.

Hundreds of thousands of direct jobs have evaporated.  As a collective, the trade show industry has come together in ways never before imagined, funneling information to lawmakers who can make a difference in accelerating the return of our industry.

Exhibitions Day brings industry professionals together to foster relationships and build awareness with federal legislators and other policy influencers on Capitol Hill. The goal is to advocate for exhibitions and events, which are a vital tool to the success of our free enterprise economy.  This year, ironically, Exhibitions Day went virtual.  The virtual face-to-face, even with its many live and pre-taped speakers, just wasn’t the same as walking the halls of Congress. But instead of about 100 people involved; about 1300 industry professionals called for congressional support of HR6697 and HR6800.

IAEE (International Association of Exhibitions and Events) has been a leading driver in bringing the industry together to trumpet a key message essential to economic recovery: EXHIBITIONS MEAN BUSINESS!  You can learn more about the pending congressional bills and related goals on their website.