Jan. 27, 2011 — Nearly half of respondents to a recent Hanley Wood Exhibitions survey about the NACE Expo said they did not attend NACE and CARS in 2010 because it was not held during industry week with SEMA and AAPEX.
For potential attendees of NACE and CARS, the location and dates of the events were the most important factors in deciding whether to go in 2011, according to the survey, one in a series of surveys used by Hanley Wood and the Automotive Service Association (ASA) to determine the future of the shows. Forty-four percent of that potential audience said they didn't attend NACE last year because it wasn't held in conjunction with SEMA and AAPEX. Last year’s event was the first departure from SEMA since 2003 and attendance dropped by a quarter.
Hundreds of people responded to the surveys, which were tailored to their respective recipient groups. Those groups included attendees, exhibitors and prospects, said Shelby Hauser, a spokeswoman for NACE and CARS.
In the survey sent to prospects, which had a response rate of roughly 10 percent, 62 percent said the location and dates of the events would most entice them to go in 2011. Other factors included price (10 percent), incentives (19 percent) and other reasons (31 percent). Respondents could choose more than one answer.
When asked to choose from a list of cities being considered for a geographic rotation, Las Vegas was the top West Coast pick with 63 percent of the vote, beating San Diego (19 percent), Phoenix (10 percent) and Reno, Nev. (8 percent). In the east, Orlando was the favorite with 51 percent of the vote, beating Atlanta (20 percent), Washington, D.C. (10 percent) and Philadelphia (5 percent). New Orleans came out on top in the Midwest with 26 percent of respondents choosing it. Nashville, Tenn. was second with 21 percent, followed by San Antonio and Denver with 16 percent each.
The survey sent to attendees, which had a 15 percent response rate, showed similar results, though it didn’t ask what would most entice respondents to attend. October was the favorite month for the event in that survey, just ahead of November. The favorite cities were the same, though the percentages differed slightly.
NACE 2011 is scheduled to take place Oct. 6-8 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. The location and date of the 2012 event is not set.
Automotive Service and Repair Week (ASRW), which organizes the event, sent surveys to event attendees, exhibitors and prospects last year to find out the reasons people did or didn’t attend, what they want to get out of the events, and what would entice them to go in the future. The results of those surveys prompted ASRW to put the shows on a rotating schedule that starts in Orlando this year, moves to the Midwest in 2012 and goes back to Las Vegas in 2013.
