Second-quarter Trade Show Industry Net Square Footage Growth Jumps 5.7 Percent

July 15, 2013

With the darkest days of the recession fading and attendee numbers already seeing healthy increases at trade shows, it only was a matter of time before exhibitors would up their booth space, exhibit at a show for the first time or return if they had been away.

Second-quarter net square footage for the hundreds of shows tracked by a2z's Quarterly Tradeshow Industry Index Report is up 5.7 percent, compared with the same time period last year.

The uptick for the second quarter continued the trend from the first quarter of this year, which saw a quarter-over-quarter net square footage increase of 3.1 percent.

For the full report click HERE.

This good news comes after last month’s Center for Exhibition Industry Research’s Index report for Q1 2013 that showed overall trade show industry growth of 1.3 percent, compared with the previous year’s quarter.

The CEIR Index is based on four metrics that, besides net square footage, includes attendance, revenue and number of exhibiting companies.

CEIR’s Q1 2013 1.3 percent overall trade show industry growth shows a positive uptick for the 11th consecutive quarter, though it lagged behind 1.8-percent GDP growth for the same quarter.

For more information on the Q1 2013 CEIR Index click HERE.

According to the a2z index, more net square footage growth is expected through the third quarter of this year, with an anticipate increase of 3 percent.

“This is encouraging news, especially with 10 out of 15 vertical markets experiencing growth in NSF, up two from Q1 of FY 2013,” said a2z's President and CEO Rajiv Jain.

He added, “This overall increase in NSF was driven by strong performances by Food and Industrial/Heavy Machinery, both of which verticals witnessed more than 30-percent increase in NSF in Q2 of FY 2013 over FY 2009.”

Other sectors that saw double-digit Q2 2013 increases in net square footage included Communications/Information Technology (21.8 percent), Transportation (16.3 percent) and Raw Materials and Science (11.6 percent).

However, there were sectors that lost space in the second quarter, compared with the previous year’s quarter, such as Education and Non-profit, Discretionary Consumer Services and Goods and Government.

Published since 2011, the a2z Quarterly Industry Index is based on data collected from hundreds of shows that are managed using a2z's platform and is constructed on the base year 2009.
 


The Index reveals the overall tradeshow industry performance, a breakdown of vertical market performance, sales pacing of the last six months and the forecast for the next six months.
 

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