DeFeo said, “We are quickly reaching the saturation point for expense and return with trade shows globally. Terex believes there should be three major global shows, alternating between Asia, Europe and the Americas. Shows are best owned by associations, where the revenue generated will be used to support the overall interests of the industry. Bauma China is a good show but does not meet these criteria.”
Katia Facchetti was appointed to the newly-created post of chief marketing officer at Terex in 2006; she came to the firm from outside of the construction industry, having previously been employed as president of marketing consultancy Fusion5, and prior to that in senior positions in the marketing departments of Nabisco and Kraft Foods.
She told Cranes Today, “Coming from outside of the construction sector, I am appalled by the time, resources and cost that goes into trade shows in this industry. It’s about the cost/benefit. We invest a lot of dollars in events, and we want to see a clear benefit.
“There are too many shows. This is an industry with a long development cycle. The equipment doesn’t change from month to month. There are not enough new products to justify the frequency of the shows; the audience for many of these shows overlaps too much. There are some smaller shows with a specialist focus that work. However, for the massive cross industry shows, one per continent would be the best use of resources.”
Facchetti and DeFeo favour association-backed events, such as ConExpo. Facchetti said, “Having an industry association like AEM involved in running a trade show means that what profits are made on the show go to programmes that benefit our industry in meaningful ways.”
Facchetti didn’t just criticise Bauma’s Chinese project, where it is competing directly with ConExpo, but also attacked the structure of the main show in Munich, and called for the European show to work with an industry association to channel profits back into the construction industry, or be replaced with a new event: “Right now, Bauma has a huge level of access to our target audience, so in the short term that’s unlikely to happen. However, in the long term, that would be ideal. If Bauma was concerned about supporting our industry, they could work with an industry association to provide some benefits to the industry of the investment made in Bauma.”
