Orange County holds many draws for meeting planners: the Southern California weather, the family friendly entertainment with Disneyland and a base of local businesses and conference attendees.
Many conventions that come to Anaheim,including the giant International Music Products Association’s NAMM and the much smaller PrintFest,rely on the regional market for their attendees.
“What’s great for us about OC is the attendance,” said Lee Wood, exhibits manager for the Design Automation Conference that will bring 10,000 people to OC later this year. “It’s also important for the show to be here because of the telecom, defense and consumer
market.”
Another reason Design Automation Conference chose OC to hold its June convention is because Irvine-based Broadcom Corp., one of its biggest customers, was guaranteed to have a presence there.
“All the exhibitors want to be at the show because of (Broadcom’s) presence,” Wood said.
Other major players for the show include Newport Beach-based Conexant Systems Inc., San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc. and the University of California, Irvine, which sends several of its professors to speak at educational sessions.
Local companies that exhibit at Anaheim’s annual conventions do it for various reasons: to get exposure, to launch a product or to generate sales leads.
Here is a look at what motivates some local companies that will be found on the show floors of Anaheim’s largest,or newest,conventions this year.
NAMM
It’s the largest convention in Anaheim and was expected to draw close to 85,000 people to its 2008 show, which ended Sunday. About 50 OC companies were among the hundreds of exhibitors who showcased their music products at this show. Dozens of others came from throughout Southern California.
Fullerton-based Stellar International Music Corp. President Peter Williams said the company always is on hand to show new products, check out competitors’ gear and build new relationships, particularly with international attendees. This year, Stellar introduced an accordion made in China and a mariachi guitar under its Rossetti trade name.
London-based Penn Elcom uses NAMM as a way to meet with its clients from North and South America.
Roger Williams, chairman of Penn Elcom, said the show is so essential that even clients who say they’re not attending end up coming each year.
“Ignore it at your peril,” he said.
Penn Elcom, which has an office in Garden Grove, makes case and cabinet products for the music industry. In Anaheim, Williams said he always meets someone who isn’t familiar with the company and its products, making the show a great place to attract customers.
Medical Design & Manufacturing
This convention carries the name of its anchor show, but it’s really seven shows staged together at the Anaheim Convention Center. It typically accounts for about 45,000 attendees,the second-largest convention in Anaheim,and upward of 100 exhibitors with OC operations. Those include Santa Ana-based Pro-Dex Inc., a maker of small industrial motors, and Texas-based Avail Medical Products Inc., a contract device maker with operations in Santa Ana.
Other exhibitors from nearby cities include Thoro Packaging in Corona. Thoro marketing coordinator Dianne Vanover said the company exhibits because drug makers, which have a major presence at the convention, are its primary market, accounting for about 50% of the company’s business.
“It’s always been a good show for us and generates good leads,” she said.
Natural Products Expo West
The third-largest convention in Anaheim, Natural Products Expo, continues to grow on the strength of a booming demand for organic and natural foods and a newfound interest in sustainable products. The convention is in March, but there already are 68 OC companies signed on as exhibitors.
The Irvine office of Earthrise Nutritionals, part of Tokyo-based DIC Group, is a maker of dietary supplements that relies on Natural Products Expo West for about 20% of its sales leads, according to Vice President of Sales and Marketing Ron Henson. Southern California is one of the 60-employee company’s largest markets.
“We do 15 to 20 shows a year,” Henson said. “(But) if we were going to do one show, this would be the one.”
Part of the attraction, he said, is that it brings in the international retailers and manufacturers as well as national and regional ones.
“Others try to emulate it, but don’t come close,” he said.
San Clemente-based Zsweet Inc., a maker of an all-natural, zero-calorie sweetener, introduced its product at the 2006 Natural Products show, garnering a lot of attention and sales as a result, President Tim Avila said.
“It’s the biggest show of the year for us,” he said.
The show allowed Zsweet to make connections with ingredient suppliers, distributors and retailers, Avila said.
“It helped us with Whole Foods Markets, which is our biggest retailer,” he said.
Nevertheless, Avila said if the trade show was held in a city outside the region, the company would probably have a smaller presence.
First-time Natural Products exhibitor Roex Inc. plans to introduce a sleep aid called “Lights Out” at the show. The Irvine-based company generates most of its consumer business through its radio show, “The Truth About Nutrition.”
Chris Bolduc, vice president of Roex, said the company now wants to develop more retail business through trade shows.
“It makes sense to launch at a show like this,” he said. “It’s a must-attend show if you’re serious about making an impact in this retail business.”
California Dental Association
This an annual conference held in Anaheim that brings about 30,000 people to town,mostly for continuing education. Like many association conventions, it also has a trade show component. Pro-Dex also exhibits at this trade show because it is considered one of the premier dental shows in the country and draws a local, national and international audience, according to director of sales and marketing Lisa Craig.
“In general, it’s very well attended and gets good traffic from every level of the industry,” she said.
American Library Association
The American Library Association will meet in Anaheim for the first time this year and expects about 10,000 attendees.
That’s a boon for some local exhibitors, like Long Beach-based Action Library Media Service LLC, which produces DVDs, documentaries and instructional films.
As a startup, Action Library Media can’t afford to travel the country to reach a national audience of buyers, but can reach them at major trade shows like this one, said Cherene Birkholz, the company’s president.
“It’s critical to my business,” she said.
Another Long Beach company, iconomy, helps high-profile individuals reach their economic and charitable goals. It is currently working with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to promote an audio book based on the print version of “On the Shoulders of Giants,My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance.” The book aims to teach kids history through basketball and music.
“I can do more than stuff a ball through a hoop, my greatest resource is my mind,” Jabbar said of his goals for the audio book.
The company is exhibiting at this convention to establish a presence for Jabbar and to reinforce his belief that libraries are an important resource for the public.
PrintFest
PrintFest is returning to Anaheim after a stint in Long Beach, in part because of the convention center’s easily accessible location.
MMi Direct Mail Communications of Irvine relies on shows like this to get sales leads because it doesn’t have a sales force, said President Bill Rivera.
Rivera said it’s part of the company’s marketing plan to exhibit at any local show, but if PrintFest was held outside California, he might not take part.
“Our target market is Southern California,” he said. “The farther we are from (that), the less we’ll get out of the show.”
Rivera said he’s seen definite results from among attendees walking the floor looking for direct marketing ideas.
“We may not close a deal on the show floor, but it’s the first opportunity to
meet and maybe bring in new clients,”
he said.
