There’s a scene in the movie “Network” when one of the characters opens a window and shouts, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more”. I have been reminded of that scene in recent months, most recently at a meeting of FPSA members at the International Poultry Exposition in Atlanta in late January. The meeting was called by our industry council, MISA, the Meat Industry Suppliers Association, and the main topic was tradeshows. Recent developments in the tradeshow environment have raised the ire of many MISA members and they wanted to meet and weigh their options.
Since PROCESS EXPO is the number one member service we provide at FPSA, several staff members and I attended this meeting with more than a casual interest. Over fifty members and other suppliers to the meat and poultry industry participated in the meeting. To characterize the give and take as “lively” would be a gross understatement. There was a palpable frustration and an expressed desire to make a change.
Let me summarize what I heard.
- There are too many tradeshows in our industry.
- Too many tradeshows do not deliver a reasonable return on the exhibitors’ investment.
- There are tradeshows whose sole purpose is to make money to be used for ends totally unrelated to the show or its participants.
- There are tradeshows where the exhibitors, who pay the lion’s share of the expenses, have little or no say in the management of the event.
- If there is to be real change in the way shows are run, this will come only through a supplier owned and managed show.
I understand this last statement as a challenge to FPSA since we are one of those “supplier owned and managed shows”.
MISA is taking this discussion of tradeshows to its meeting at the FPSA Annual Conference this March in Cancun. The members are dedicating a full morning to a discussion of the role MISA will play if developing a tradeshow that responds to these current concerns and anticipates the needs of exhibitors and processors alike for the future. I hope that other industry councils of FPSA who will be meeting at the same time will also set aside time for this type of discussion. FPSA staff will be prepared to discuss what they have developed for PROCESS EXPO 2010 and future tradeshows.
We understand the concern and the frustration. We will take aggressive action to deliver a quality product for the exhibitors and visitors who come to PROCESS EXPO 2010. We look forward to the discussions at Conference and promise to listen and apply the suggestions to the improvement of PROCESS EXPO. After all, it is your show and you deserve a large return on your business investments.
David Seckman
President & CEO, FPSA
