CX Magazine - The News Magazine for Entertainment Technology

ENTECH in the firing line as new annual show, new magazine planned

Australia's professional sound and lighting industry may suffer a trade show war as former ENTECH manager Louise Brooks announces plans to run a new show annually from 2009, starting in Sydney. Proposed to run a few weeks prior to the long established SMPTE show which is also held in Sydney, the new show would then run annually with the off year in another state.

The surprising move comes after Louise resigned from ETF, a Staging Connections subsidiary which has owned and run ENTECH since 2004. Louise managed ENTECH from 2002 onwards, and previously left ETF between the 2006 and the recently concluded 2008 ENTECH to work with another trade show organizer overseas. She similarly worked on trade shows in the UK between the 2002 and the 2004 ENTECH shows.

With the working title ‘INTEGRATE 2009', the new trade show would break with convention and be located at the Entertainment Quarter in Sydney's Moore Park precinct at Playbill Venues. The show will be spread across the Royal Hall of Industries and the Hordern Pavilion. This provides similar floor space to the recent ENTECH show. Playbill are an excellent venue operator.

The advantage of the venue is cost, which is around half that of the Sydney Exhibition and Convention Centre at Darling Harbour. The Entertainment Quarter also features low cost car parking. Against this there are no hotels within walking distance, a major benefit at Darling Harbour.

Louise is working with Alchemedia, the publishers of Audio Technology Magazine, and Venue Magazine. They have also announced a forthcoming Audio Visual magazine for integrators, and the Integrate trade show would also cater to this. CX has been told that the show will compete hard against ENTECH, but also SMPTE. Presumably the Integrate push will also impact on the Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association (CEDIA), who run a growing trade show every year.

Industry reaction to this has been lukewarm. Many ENTECH and SMPTE exhibitors are vocal about costs at the Darling Harbour Centre, much of which is for services like parking, electricity, rigging and catering - a particular gripe. The Centre has also attempted to further tighten use of external audio visual equipment, as they have a sole supplier policy for their internal audio visual department. ENTECH exhibitors do not like being told they must hire equipment that they already sell. Whether the dissatisfaction about costs is held against the trade shows, or against the venue, is not clear.

ENTECH and SMPTE are both mature events, held every two years at Darling Harbour, which work very well for trade visitors. These shows, along with the annual AMAC music trade convention, were all built on a broad model of industry consultation, with considerable investment in conference, workshop and social events. Each ENTECH reinvested as much as $80,000 in external events, industry awards and courses when run by Juliusmedia. SMPTE and AMAC spend large sums to enhance their trade shows with educational programs.

Another big spend on ENTECH in the Juliusmedia decade was advertising, spent outside of the owner's magazine - as much as $120,000 on one ENTECH show, to really build the brand and get the right trade visitors.

To launch a new event from scratch, at a different venue, against strong incumbent shows assumes there is a lot of new growth business in the sound, lighting and vision markets. It needs a lot of pizzazz, some really fresh ideas, a big advertising spend beyond the owner's magazines, and deeply lower costs for exhibitors and visitors. That was the climate when ENTECH was launched.

A good outcome would be a merger of some of the shows, with a rationalization. It is entirely possible the Integrate proposal may contain a merger of some kind, yet to be announced.

Here's the trade show calendar - nine shows, two years:

* Juliusmedia sold ENTECH to ETF in 2004 to raise funds for Julius Events College.