The trade exhibitions are not open for all public, while theme exhibitions welcome consumers. There are four major functions: collective Business Control and Planning, Human Resources, Information and Secretarial Services.
- ELMIA’S STRUCTURE -
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It takes approximately 12 to 18 months to design a presentation such as an exhibition show in Elmia and there are usually three people who drive the presentation process. There are many responsibities during the designing stage and each presentation is different. Firstly, it begins with planning the budget. Secondly, there is a group presentation.
This group should attract exhibitors and visitors along with encouraging them to communicate with each other; organizing, for example, a conference meeting. Furthermore, one group contacts the media and press, to make the existence of the presentation,known. Last but not least; foreign institutions are informed when necessary. At the end of those presentations each one of them is being compared with each other.
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When deciding the budget, someone has to look at the timetable in order to see how many Expos and shows are set and how much money can be used for these shows must be calculated. The following table shows the budget for a show-expo. Each show has its own specific budget.
INCOME EXPENSES
Expo Marketing
Entrance Partners
Meetings Schedule
Catalogues Expo Control
Restaurant Personnel
Parking Brochures
Other Income* Other Expenses*
Personnel costs (e.g. for group presentation) and the cost of internal personnel such as production and service exhibitors, Text and Graphic Presenters; are included. Most of the costs at the above table, are direct and pre-determined. This occurs due to the large number of staff and personnel.
Fixed costs are usually separated from other costs. These include rent and electricity. The electricity for each stand is a separate charge. The staff is divided as to given duties, thus no problems of collective costs occur. Internal transaction costs are not being taken into consideration. Elmia does not assess secondary costs into total costs.
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At Elmia Exhibitor Service they take care of designing, lighting and creating the right flows at the expo stand. They also offer design stands as well as customized standard solutions. Elmia Exhibitor Service can help exhibitors who already have a stand solution, but with additional requirements such as furniture, power connections, wire suspensions, signs, hangings, coffee machines and Internet connections, as well.
Many different aspects need to fall into place when designing a stand, from following a specific company profile, to lighting and creating the right customer flow in the stand. Elmia’s experience of stand design helps in creating the right conditions for a successful fair. Stand designers use 3D programs which enable the customers, to view the stand before it is built.
Elmia has an electronic system that informs the company when a customer has made a booking. Within two weeks, the company uses the marketing sector in order to contact the customer. A meeting can be set by email, telephone or ever by fax. Exhibitors may choose a stand via the Internet as well. However, very few use this service. A reason is because it is difficult for customers to describe in detail what
they see through the Internet.
The stand is constructed of either aluminum or wood. Aluminum is cheap and has long ‘shelf life’. However, to build a one-meter wall, there are five different pieces to be put together unless when it comes to wood, where walls, just get joint easily The walls separating two regions of the stand, are included in the floor price that the exhibitor has to pay.
There is a cost accounting system for walls and furniture available for different choices of stand. E.g. a chair; someone is aware of the purchase price of the materials of the chair, after estimating its’ economic life’ (the number of rents per year), and the duration of use in minutes. If a chair costs 1500SEK (1SEK = 0.1 EURO) and is rented 15 times per year, while restoration duration is ten minutes, then the cost is: 1500 / (15 * 10) = 10 SEK / minute. If the seat requires ten minutes for setup, it will cost 100 SEK for throughout the exhibition period. However, since the chair will have been used for for fifteen times, the company will have equaled its value. Since the costs of construction of the stand are made of materials from Elmia and suppliers, the company adds a growth rate cost, which is the real price offered to customers. Another example is the following: if a wall costs 8000 SEK, and it is used for 25 times a year, (5 minutes setup) then the cost price is: 8000 / (25 * 5) 6,4 SEK/minute After a 5 minute set up, the cost for each wall is 32 SEK. However, after cost has been increased, then this wall is priced at 250 SEK.
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For every square meter not sold to the exhibitor, Elmia has a loss. Due to that uncertainty, the costs for an exhibition cannot be calculated accurately. Furthermore, every stand must be built due to what the costumers want and it is difficult to calculate costs from owned products. That is the reason that Elmia does not use the ABC system (costing model that identifies activities in an organization and assigns the cost of each activity with resources to all products and services according to the actual consumption by each). A company of self renting products puts many sources into a presentation, without really knowing the ending of it.
There are really well made stands (that is where the money is!) but is difficult to make accurate calculations on those. On the other hand there are more plain stands that are about 80% of stands sold. Internet profits on stands are about 5% of total. One issue is that calculations have to be made throughout the whole duration of the exhibition.
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*in thousands
_references
www.elmia.se/en/
www.biztradeshows.com
www.eventseye.com
