Are Audio Shows Big Money Makers for those involved?

The hotels do pretty well.

Good question, caesar. I have always wondered about this. Clearly the hotels make money.

I do not know what the business model is for show organizers.

Maybe: (dealer and manufacturer room fees + public attendee fees to enter + advertising revenue from exhibitors) - venue “rental” - show promotion and advertising expenses - compensation to workers at the show - insurance = EBITDA?

I assume dealers and manufacturers view show exhibits as advertising and promotion costs. I highly doubt they make any money from paying to attend shows and incurring significant travel and lodging expenses and logistics expenses to move heavy components around. I suspect they view it as promotional activity in the hope of realizing sales over time in the future.

Ron Resnick said:

Maybe: (dealer and manufacturer room fees + public attendee fees to enter + advertising revenue from exhibitors) - venue “rental” - show promotion and advertising expenses - compensation to workers at the show - insurance = EBITDA?

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Here is my triangulation of the income:

They probably make the "bucs" of the visitors: 15€ per day for a non "trade" visitor. 25€ for to days... For trade 20€ for the complete show.
so 8002 trade visitors and 13410 normal visitors. (www.highendsociety.de/index.php/de/...esseinformation - Geschichte der HIGH END.pdf)
That sums up to an estimated average of 18€ per normal visitor. And 20€ for the trade visitors. We will leave the non pre registerd trade visitors out of the question. Those tickets cost 40€

8002*20 = 160040
+13410*18 = 241380
Total: 401.420€

Space rent to exhibitors: 29.000 qm were rented (average price aprox. 0.65€ per qm because the spaces in the hall's are cheaper)

29.000*0.65 = 18850€

Misc. exhibitions costs: (Registry, space advertisment, office charges etc...) aproximate 1000€ per exhibitor

538*1000 = 538.000€

Total: 958.270€

My gut-guess is around 500.000€ rent for the MOC for the weekend.

caesar said:

As an audio fan, walking through an audio show, I would rate the overt "sales effort" as a 3 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being "extreme aggressive" and 1 as "meh". This makes for a fun experience. And fans looking to buy, may sometimes find show specials for items that can't readily be found on the internet sites (despite of complaints that the internet is killing the audio business).

Are audio shows big money makers for organizers? Manufacturers? Dealers? Others? And directly/ immediately or as part of a sustained marketing effort?

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The organizers must make money or they wouldn't keep doing it Caesar. Dealers, Manufacturers, Distributors etc. all pay to for the rooms.
For example we just paid over a grand a day, by quite a bit, for the room for the show. We are given one non show day to set up and must be completely out of the room by 11.59 Sunday evening.
That also includes your listing and signage that the show provides. The cost of getting there, sleeping rooms , shipping etc. etc. is on the exhibitor.
I don't believe there us much hardware sold at these events directly although it is possible. I have done a bunch of shows and there was NO direct sales made at any of our shows.
We did do business after the shows since it is really like advertising or marketing.
I know software is sold at these shows like LP's. CD's.Books, Magazines etc.
I read that they sold around 8200 tickets for this show plus over 160 exhibitors and the rates for the rooms were on the web site.
I would think they did quite well at this event.
Sorry we did not get introduced when you visited my room,
Best regards,
Elliot

The mindset for vendors is not to go there to 'sell'. It's to raise brand awareness and for networking in all avenues. I found this show VERY successful and do have a few sales lined up from it, but to me that is just a bonus. A show like AXPONA is even more beneficial to dealers and other industry participants than it is for the consumer in my mind.

If you go there with the mindset that you will sell something, you will likely be severely disappointed.

Honestly, I didn't even go there with the idea of capturing best sound. My entire system was around $15,000 and I felt the sound of my brands was well represented, which was the goal. If I had wanted best sound, my system would have been built and priced exponentially higher.

Its all about networking and exposure.

DSkip said:

The mindset for vendors is not to go there to 'sell'. It's to raise brand awareness and for networking in all avenues. I found this show VERY successful and do have a few sales lined up from it, but to me that is just a bonus. A show like AXPONA is even more beneficial to dealers and other industry participants than it is for the consumer in my mind.

If you go there with the mindset that you will sell something, you will likely be severely disappointed.

Honestly, I didn't even go there with the idea of capturing best sound. My entire system was around $15,000 and I felt the sound of my brands was well represented, which was the goal. If I had wanted best sound, my system would have been built and priced exponentially higher.

Its all about networking and exposure.

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This is not always true. For instance, Scott Walker and Synergistic Research have been doing very good business taking orders from a "static display" room next to the SR demo system. They have been doing this for a couple of years I believe and Ted Denney tells me that they have done very well.

Shows put on by Stereophile are a different story than THE Show or LA Audio Show for instance. The rooms in a Stereophile show will cost the exhibitor about 2-3 times what a THE Show room will cost. CES is a different thing than other shows, mostly a dealer show. I don't sell through dealers, so it was only a means to connect with the press for me. I don't go to CES anymore.

Usually, shows are more about touching base personally with the press, allowing them to hear new gear and touching base with a few customers. I usually sell nothing at shows and then have a few follow-up sales. Maybe break even or make a little money. I personally have a lot of fun and get limited opportunity to go around and audition other DACs, amps and speakers from other manufacturers. Sometimes I make friends with other manufacturers and share some reference tracks with them. Did this with Bryston guys. A great team. I also talk tech with many outside the room.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Lee said:

This is not always true. For instance, Scott Walker and Synergistic Research have been doing very good business taking orders from a "static display" room next to the SR demo system. They have been doing this for a couple of years I believe and Ted Denney tells me that they have done very well.

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There are some exceptions. Cables and accessories are a different beast since they are easy to tote around. The 'big boys' also are able to make sales at shows. For the hundreds of smaller vendors trying to carve out their own niche, the networking is the prime goal. I guess my point is the general rule (exceptions always apply) is that if you come to the show with the full intent to pay off your expenses, you are in a big position to be let down and view your experience as a waste.

Steve has the right idea and expressed what I was mostly trying to get across. Shows are more of a means to grow your business, but maybe not your immediate sales.