Taking back the blog…..for now!

...It’s good to be back. Hopefully all of you read Amie’s blog last week while I was away. It has spurred a little competition here – whose blog gets read more……and Amie did well last week. I’m back for now – but you will have an opportunity to hear more from Amie and the rest of the ISC staff throughout the rest of the year.

When we talked last, I mentioned that we were entering into our 2010 budgeting process. Like most of you, this is when we project what revenues and profit will look like in the coming year; then we examine investment and are asked to defend each expenditure as how vital it is to the success of our property. Key to note here, is that the process is about scrutinizing, not simply cutting. The ISC events, and this site, have realized the growth that they have based on targeted investment where necessary – while continuing to evaluate where spending is not as efficient – and making the hard decisions to reallocate existing resources. Again, I’m sure this is not unlike the process that most of you are going through.

What has been more difficult is gauging what the investment of individual companies will be in the ISC events in 2010. We learned during the dot.com boom – when trade shows were going away – that there will always be a need and a place for face-to-face – and that certainly hasn’t changed. Despite the rough economy we’ve been able to do well maintaining the amount of participation in the events, despite seeing the investment in the event by some companies decrease. It appeared that the smaller investment was fueled primarily by those companies who do not view security as their primary sector. But I read on Saturday that while we continue to see an increase in positive indicators around a recovery for the economy, many companies have learned to do more with the same – or less – through this experience. They’ve been asked to make hard decisions and reallocate existing resources – and that some of the spending that was seen before 2008 may not return as quickly as we think – or would like.

I would be interested to hear how your company is planning for 2010 and how it plans to spend; or not spend.

Ed Nichols
Industry Vice President
Reed Exhibitions
203 840-5968

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