Glut of shows and conferences makes travel decisions tough

Twenty or so years ago, there was mostly ANPA. Then came ANPA/Tec, and still later, NEXPO.

Now there's a trade show for every one of an ever-growing number of delivery media -- newspapers, Internet, cable -- plus shows for specific platforms, and conferences about the various nuances of the publishing and graphic arts industry.

How many choices are there? A random sampling of newspaper executives generated this list: Advertising Media Credit Executives Association, America East, America West, Association of Publishing Systems Users, California Classified Advertising Managers Conference, Connections, E&P Online Classifieds Symposium, Harris Users Group, IFRA and its Electronic Publishing Conference, Interactive Newspapers, Interactive Publishing, Internet World, Metro Users Group, NAA Classified Conference, National Association of Broadcasters, NEXPO, Seybold Seminars, System Integrators Systems Users Group, Western Classified Advertising Managers Conference.

Just as the number of conferences has grown, your responsibilities probably have expanded as well, so your need to attend has grown over the years. What hasn't kept up is your travel and trade show/conference budget.

Suppliers -- who often plan a year in advance which shows they'll go to -- can sympathize here. For example, Edgil Associates Inc. of North Chelmsford, Mass., plans for about 10 shows a year, said Jeff Kosiorek, the company's manager of marketing communications.

"Trade shows offer vendors a chance to meet newspaper representatives in one place rather than traveling from state to state selling our wares. But now," he said, "there are so many conferences that newspapers can only afford to send someone to one or two of these shows a year."

Many of these shows and conferences overlap, especially in the World-Wide Web arena, he said. And often he finds shows are "so watered down that there is very little scheduled vendor time. In this common scenario, the vendor is expected to pay thousands of dollars for only a few hours of demo time."

The bottom line is that quantity does not equal quality. Nor does it always assure a diverse range of choice. But the five newspapers we talked to found good reasons to take time and money to hit the training/conference/trade show circuit.

How do they decide where to go and who to send -- especially at a time when training dollars are reputedly scarce?

Spending to save
The budget at the Daily Camera in Boulder, Colo., covers users groups and more specific training, said Garth Hospers, the paper's operations director.

"I've been fortunate over the years, maybe because good results from spending for various functions have resulted in cost savings or better practices," he said. "As a rule of thumb, I expect to save the cost of the trip from the experience gained, or a new idea implemented."

Hospers, who oversees information systems, pre-press, press, mailroom and building maintenance, said the annual budget of the Daily Camera tries to include a week's training for each department supervisor. For one or two production folks, that may translate into a trip to a users group meeting.

While the publisher is responsible for ensuring that travel and training expenditures address the needs of the entire newspaper, directors decide who will go to various functions. At the Daily Camera, as at other papers we spoke with, travel decisions are tied to current projects.

Destinations are likely to include users groups and site visits to other newspapers, as well as NEXPO, the annual show and conference sponsored by the Newspaper Association of America. NEXPO is high on Hospers' list because it provides opportunities for technical discussions and for looking at technical solutions for so many areas of the newspaper.

"If it is close, I'll try to rotate supervisors through for a couple days each," he said. "It is a good place to train. I'll walk the floor with my people, introduce them to their counterparts and schedule demos that will make them think."

In Alabama, the Huntsville Times regularly uses a large portion of its travel resources for NEXPO, sending an average of four people a year. Two also go to the SII users group meeting and to Interop World.

Production Director Martha Reichold carries in her portfolio responsibility for production, ad services, the press room and systems. She clears her decisions with the publisher, but has her own criteria for determining who goes and to what.

"I find it most difficult to schedule myself or any of my staff for a trip to the West Coast. As a general rule we just won't attend," she said.

Along with proximity, Reichold considers content, price and relevance to current projects. Generally, she said, "we do not budget, but judge the show or seminar on its merits ... [that] depends on the projects we are working on and if the trade show will add value to the project."

Reichold is more likely to approve general trade show attendance for lead managers, while "the second tier down would get the OK to attend Photoshop or Quark XPress training before they would get permission to go to NEXPO," she said. "If the content is heavy on the training side and not just a general overview, I will OK most trips."

Four eyes are better than two
Like the Times, the Plain Dealer of Cleveland also sees NEXPO as a key conference, and regularly sends a significant contingent of representatives from production, advertising, editorial and circulation.

Exactly who goes depends on the technical projects under way or under consideration.

Rosemary Kovacs, an editor at the Newhouse paper, is in charge of the copy desk and the systems department, and is liaison to the production department. "All of the editorial trips have to be justified to the managing editor, and then he sends it on to the editor with a recommendation," she said.

She's found that NEXPO often is more valuable when two people go together, because "we can see more things between the two of us," she said.

Upon returning, she explained, attendees write a report (the publisher requests a copy) about what they have seen that could benefit the paper.

As co-chair of a biweekly committee on writing and editing, Kovacs also goes to meetings of the Associated Press Managing Editors to take advantage of Apme's good writing and editing programs.

When the paper is facing a technical purchasing decision that affects the newsroom -- an output device, or a pagination or editorial system -- she finds NEXPO most useful to her work. While she and Dennis Webb, the paper's systems director, have both gone to NEXPO and America East, Webb attends "the more technical conventions" like the NAA's January SuperConference.

The paper's Mac guru, Jim Hatch, is now evaluating and setting up digital camera workflow, so he has gone to a digital color seminar and a Seybold conference.

Once a purchase has been made, the budgetary emphasis at the Plain Dealer shifts to making the best use of the system, so attending a users group is more easily justified.

"We haven't gone for [NEXPO] the last two years since we're set on Harris pagination and have been involved in installing new upgrades," Kovacs said. "Usually we send one person in systems and a user to the Harris users group in Melbourne, Fla., every year."

Who goes to the users group is based in part on a group effort to figure out which user will benefit and bring back the most information to the staff. The systems staff, on the other hand, takes turns attending, she said.

Of course, it doesn't hurt anyone's chances to attend if someone from your paper lands on a committee or holds an office; a number of people at the Plain Dealer hold NEXPO committee memberships and attend for that reason.

And last year, reported Kovacs, "a Plain Dealer staffer from another division was the president of the Harris users group, so several Plain Dealer persons from several divisions attended."

Living the corporate life
Howard Finberg and Mike Steele have broader horizons to scan than Hospers, Reichold or Kovacs.

As director of technology and information strategies at Central Newspapers Inc. in Phoenix, Finberg's responsibilities cut across all the traditional operating units at a newspaper. Thus, he tries to "watch for events that allow me to make sure that I have kept aware of the operational and strategic issues within those areas."

Finberg uses two criteria when deciding which shows to attend: learning and networking. These are balanced by the constraints of time and money.

"While it is possible to attend something every other week, there is only so much new stuff," Finberg said. "And it is important to take some time to reflect on what you have learned and find ways to communicate that throughout an organization."

For him, looking beyond newspapers to other media-related industries allows him to find the more exciting developments and widen Central's network of business associates. He may turn up one week at a Yankee Group seminar on call centers, and another at an Internet commerce event.

"The trick," he said, "is to find those events that will provide you with information that you can leverage within the company. You pick up little pieces of information that, when tied together, provide a better understanding of the competitive challenges we face or will be facing."

Like Finberg, Steele monitors the world for more than one property, as director of new media for Media General Inc. of Richmond, Va. With overall strategic responsibility for Media General's new media efforts, Steele said, "I have to keep up with all facets of the process, across divisional lines" -- which includes broadcast, print and cable.

"At this point in the evolution of the industry," he said, "I look on conference and trade show attendance as a necessary expense. And with the changes coming so rapidly, I believe you need a refresher/update about every three or four months.

"Four weeks out of the year in intense discussion of where the industry is headed is actually not a lot of time," he pointed out. "And it's absolutely crucial if you want to keep ahead of developments."

Steele said he tries to schedule himself for four shows a year: Connections, Interactive Newspapers, National Association of Broadcasters and one of several cable shows. He also tries to schedule at least two for the technology manager (Connections and Internet World) and two for the business development manager (especially Interactive Newspapers).

"We can go to any others that look like they might be beneficial. The management is very supportive of us in this regard; but I also recognize that you can do too much of a good thing, so I try to be selective and prudent."

The shows he finds easiest to skip are those "put on solely by vendors or groups of vendors, those that are too narrowly focused, or those whose content or speakers are repetitive of previous ones."

For other people in his group, Steele's decisions on who goes where are based on skills, particular knowledge or area of expertise. Other than NEXPO and Connections, he usually sends only one or two people to any one conference.

"Although I try to mix it up a bit so that there is some cross-training, I don't decide on who goes based on whether they've been (or not been) to one recently. I don't see these as benefits or perks. These are learning experiences."

Steele has a strategy for getting the most out of his time away from the office: Before the show, he maps out the sessions and suppliers he feels are "must-sees."

He's found that it's equally important, however, to allow "hallway time" to talk with others in the industry, and to build flexibility into his schedule. "If there's a hot topic that develops, I can shift things around," he said.

He's also found it helpful when shows provide daily summaries on-line, since that allows him "to fill in the gaps of what I might have missed during the day."

He uses his evenings to review notes and focus his thoughts. Depending on your personality, his last suggestion may be hard to digest.

"I'm likely to skip a banquet and order room service pizza," Steele said, "so I can use that time to contemplate what I've learned during the day and to make arrangements for follow-ups, if needed."

-- L. Carol Christopher

See also Getting the most for your show dollar.

From THE COLE PAPERS, November 1998, Copyright © 1998, All Rights Reserved.