MachineryLink

The announcement that Commodity Classic and AG CONNECT will host a combined show in 2016 didn't come as a total surprise. Privately, some exhibitors have been whispering for a few years that there are too many farm shows in too short a winter timeframe. Consolidation seemed likely. Frankly, the marriage of Commodity Classic and AG CONNECT seems a match made in marketing heaven.

First, let's look at the calendar. It always struck me as impractical that so many large agricultural tradeshows squeezed into a wintertime slot of mid-January to early March. In 2013, for instance, AG CONNECT (created by the Association of Equipment Manufacturers in 2010) had its mid-January extravaganza in Kansas City, Mo. In the middle of February, World Ag Expo was calling farmers to Tulare, Calif. At about that same time the National Farm Machinery Show, which bills itself as the largest indoor farm show in the country, was opening its doors in Louisville, Ken. Two weeks after that, Commodity Classic (run by the National Corn Growers Association, the American Soybean Association, the National Association of Wheat Growers and the National Sorghum Growers) took over a convention center in Kissimmee, Fla.

Seemed like an awful lot of convention/trade show aimed at a relatively small population of farmers in a short time span. But what do I know? Each of those shows claimed record attendance in 2013. One question lingered: How long could it last? Another question -- maybe the more important of the two -- was: How long would exhibitors paying the freight?

Farm shows are expensive. Think of the cost to a major company to ship massive combines, tractors and sprayers to a convention center. Think of the expense of the ever more elaborate booths. These aren't plywood and canvas installations. They are well-designed -- sometimes one of a kind -- displays that feature fancy lighting and sound systems; 10-foot digital monitors; thick pile carpet, couches and shiny metal furniture.

Then there is the expense for the planning and personnel that make a booth function. Plane tickets. Hotel bills. Restaurant bills. Entertainment for clients and customers. Just the cost of the matching outfits for the men and women staffing the exhibits would buy my wardrobe for the next 20 years.

Price tags for the most expensive affairs could run easily into seven figures. So it's no wonder that many exhibitors muttered (off-the-record) that something had to give. They felt obligated to go to all the show; but felt resentful that there were so many events.

Maybe that's where the marriage of Commodity Classic and AG CONNECT was made.

Obviously, both shows have much to gain by consolidating. In the convention industry, it's called "co-location." That's the trade term for exhibitors trying to piggyback on other events in the same city that draw similar audiences. In 2011, for example, AG CONNECT co-located its event in Atlanta to coincide with the American Farm Bureau Federation's annual meeting. Attendees still refer to that as the Year of the Ice Storm, which paralyzed Atlanta and stranded many convention goers. But, according to Exhibit City News, the co-location still "brought an additional 5,500 registrants to AG CONNECT."

In 2013, AG CONNECT co-located in Kansas City with 30 other ag-related events and its attendance shot to almost 11,000.

The upshot of all this is that the folks who run Commodity Classic and AG CONNECT decided they will be better off co-locating (or perhaps more properly "cohabitating") than competing.

AG CONNECT originally set for itself a biannual schedule so it would not compete with AgriTechnica, the huge biannual international show in Germany. That has changed. AG CONNECT's will skip its 2015 date and begin convening every year with Commodity Classic. First stop: March 2016 in New Orleans.

(AG)

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