Many large-scale trade shows and exhibitions have been lagging behind smaller meetings and events when it comes to attendance levels in 2022, but the B2B exhibition industry is still on the right track to recovery, according to the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR)’s third quarter index, which it released this week at Expo! Expo! IAEE’s Annual Meeting and Exhibition.
The index shows that metrics continued to improve over the second quarter, marking the tenth straight quarter that they have done so. Cancellation rates of in-person events ticked up very slightly to 3.1 percent from 2 percent last quarter, but CEIR notes that an improvement in completed events still led to an improvement in the index overall.
The CEIR Total Index came in at 22.3 percent lower than 2019, showing a slight improvement over last quarter (24.4 percent below 2019), and a massive improvement over the third quarter of 2019 (50 percent below 2019). The performance of completed events (excluding cancellations) was down 19.9 percent in Q3 2022 compared to 2019, again, showing a slight improvement over last quarter (22.9 percent below 2019).
The recovery is seemingly slowing down compared to the past four quarters, but it is still trending in the right direction, which is what matters. In addition, among completed events, CEIR found that 14 percent have surpassed their pre-pandemic levels of the CEIR Total Index.
In the third quarter, exhibitors represented the metric that lagged the most behind 2019 levels, with a 23.6 percent decline. Attendees were close behind, having declined by 23.2 percent, followed by Real Revenues (18 percent decline) and Net Square Feet (14.4 percent decline).
All in all, things are continuing to look up, even if economic uncertainties and inflation continue to present obstacles to full recovery.
CEIR Economist Dr. Allen Shaw, Chief Economist for Global Economic Consulting Associates, Inc., predicted that “the B2B exhibition cancellation rate should remain extremely low, and the performance of completed events will continue to improve. A full recovery for the industry is expected in 2024.”
CEIR CEO Cathy Breden added, “Despite Omicron at the outset of 2022, CEIR research has documented an intent to return to face-to-face engagement at B2B exhibitions, and CEIR Index quarterly results show recovery is happening. Each quarter, the Index is showing that more business professionals and exhibitors are coming back to the B2B exhibitions channel to meet their marketing, sales and business information needs.”